


hold on (i still need you)

by Falcon (obligatory_word)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Rewrite, Cat Grant Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Character Death, Claustrophobia, Depression, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Humor, Follows Canon Timeline but is not Canon, Friendship, Good Person Mon-El (Supergirl TV 2015), Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kara Danvers Has Abandonment Issues, Kara Danvers Has PTSD, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Kara Danvers is Not Okay, Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Lena Luthor Doesn't Know Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Lena Luthor Finds Out Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Loss, Major Character Injury, Mental Health Issues, Mon-El (Supergirl TV 2015) Being an Asshole, Mon-El (Supergirl TV 2015) Not Being an Asshole, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Panic Attacks, Past Kara Danvers/Mon-El, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Swearing, Torture, Xenophobia, he's still kind of an ass at first, i changed my mind i'm redeeming him, i should put both tags, no happy ending, well not at first at least
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 35,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23842009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obligatory_word/pseuds/Falcon
Summary: A look at Kara's life through the perspective of a friend from young. She has always been there, from Crisis to Crisis.And then, it ends.Ellie thinks that it's bitterly ironic, Kara's entire life. A Daxamite and a Kryptonian. A Luthor and a Super. The beginning and the end. The hero and the nobody. Hero to all but villain to herself. Paragon of Hope but utterly hopeless. Bright and dark. Saving others but not saving herself.Kara's life wasn't fair at all.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Kara Danvers & Mon-El, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Original Female Character/Rick Malverne
Comments: 15
Kudos: 65





	1. Combustion

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Supergirl, otherwise Supercorp is canon and William is yeeted into space. I do like Mon-El okay, and if I had it my way he would be NICER. But canonically he doesn't quite get it, blahbitty blah blah. So here, he's an asshole, but mark my words, the next fic I write with him will make him nice and not frat boy-like. Or maybe yes, frat boy-like but not Mr. Asshole. Anyways, this is a canon rewrite. I don't believe that NO ONE knew Kara was an alien since young besides Rick Malverne. And also, surely Kara and Alex had more friends back then and not completely alone?? Why does no one talk about Kara's issues? She's not okay people! A few conversations isn't going to make that trauma go away. CW, please. Fix the show.
> 
> Title is from Chord Overstreet's Hold On.
> 
> Oh, right. Enjoy.

Ellie Hunter could safely say she has witnessed the entire life of Kara Danvers.

They probably didn’t realize it, but she had always been there, watching in the shadows. 

It wasn’t that she meant to, it was just coincidence. She grew up in Midvale, was friends with Alex Danvers, saw the entry of Kara Danvers and puzzled over their complicated sisterhood. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew Kara was an alien, knew it since she was an avid fan of Superman since young. She wanted to know more about aliens and was empathetic towards them. It also didn’t take a genius to put two and two together of a pod crash-landing on Earth and the sudden presence of a clumsy little girl who didn’t know anything, literally anything, about the world.

“Alex, you have to be nicer to Kara,” she had argued. 

“No.”

Kara was new, Kara was nice. Kara was innocent and scared and she reached out to help Kara. She was bad at hiding secrets. Everything was miserable and loud to her and to someone as observant as Ellie, it wasn’t hard to spot. At first, Ellie had no idea how to approach the situation. By right, she only had a connection to Alex and not Kara, since the alien ducked away from her every time. But sooner or later she began to feel bad and spent time with both Alex and Kara with some other people. 

“Hey.” Ellie’s voice was awkward. She had grabbed a juice box and was bouncing it from hand to hand lightly, wondering if Kara could do that. What kind of powers did Kara have? What kind of alien was she? “I’m Ellie.”

Kara stared at her with wide blue eyes as if she was the alien, and it suddenly struck Ellie that maybe she was, considering that she was the only one to probably speak to her outside of her family. So she offered a timid smile instead.

“I’m Kara.” Ellie mentally fist-pumped. Achievement unlocked! Kara seemed to be nice past the shy exterior. A little sad. Ellie’s home was lonely and cold and dark, and while she was quiet and serious most of the time, no one deserved that sadness and loneliness. The alien watched her bounce the juice box from hand to hand. “What’s that?”

“It’s a juice box.” Kara looked at it with interest, head tilting to the side as she looked at it. Ellie practically thrust it at her, realizing she was awkwardly standing there. “Here, I got it for you.”

Confusion coloured Kara’s face as she gently took the juice box in her hands as if it was a bomb. “Thank you?”

She watched Kara fumble with the juice box for a few minutes, a little unsure of how to approach the carton and open it or something. So she gently eased herself beside Kara and asked, “Do you know how to open it?”

The alien shook her head no, and Ellie pulled out a similar juice box, demonstrating how to open the box for Kara as the blonde watched, enraptured by the mere process of opening a juice box. Ellie learned a valuable lesson of not taking things for granted anymore, watching Kara’s eyes sparkled as she took in new information, even with something as simple as opening a juice box. Of course, the happiness and sparkle didn’t last long as Kara’s strength and out-of-control powers got the better of her and she squeezed too hard, causing the juice box to explode. Kara looked like she wanted to cry at that point, but Ellie also crushed her juice box, causing a smaller explosion and began to laugh.

“The explosion is funny. I do that sometimes too. Other times, I squeeze and the juice just comes out of the straw and hits me in the face!” And pretty soon, Kara and her were rolling on the floor laughing.

Kara took a long time to adjust to her surroundings. At first, her English was rusty, but within a week, Kara was speaking very well. That was kind of her first tip-off. She tried to encourage the alien, but the bullying had spiralled out of control by then, with Kara being hurled names and shouted at. 

When Lex Luthor made his angry statement on television known, about his hatred of all aliens, Ellie kept it mum that she knew Kara was an alien, playing dumb when Kara would accidentally slip up (there was quite a lot of that in the early stages of their friendship), making excuses when Kara would slip up for her (later on proving to be a valuable skill). 

She was there when Kara was scared and bullied and Alex’s extreme change of heart. Heck, half the time she was the one who was late to the scene, Alex beating the shit out of anybody who dared bully Kara.

“What the hell?! Alex!” Ellie yelled, pulling Alex aside. “What the hell are you doing!”

“He locked my sister in there!” She pointed aggressively at the locker. Something in Ellie roared with a white hot anger. There were screams echoing from the inside as Ellie broke the lock and gathered the crying and screaming alien in her arms, passing her off to Alex and then punching the boy herself. Kara was screaming, muffled sobs in Alex’s jacket as Alex fumed and Ellie raged.

And then Kenny died.

Kenny died and she was terrified of telling Kara that she knew. Kenny died and she had never seen Kara so inconsolable. They launched a detective mission to avenge him. Ellie thought it was noble. But what sealed the deal for her knowing that Kara was an alien was her catching Kara flying one day. Mentally, she sighed about Kara’s blatant use of powers.

People grew up. The Kara she knew before in middle school was scared, terrified of the littlest sounds. She caught Kara’s frequent panic attacks, though Kara had managed it over the years. They went off to college, to university together, and that was where they grew closer. 

“Kara, what do you want to take?”

“I don’t know…”

Ellie pursued Engineering and Photography, taking a different path academically-wise from Kara, but steering close to Kara. Then Ellie admitted to Alex, not Kara, that she knew Kara was an alien.

Alex was ever oblivious to this fact, screaming her head off at Ellie and warning her not to tell anyone, to which Ellie had responded, “I have known for years, Alex!” and that was that.

Ellie, for some time, had developed a relationship with Rick Malverne, something she would later regret. He was sweet, charismatic, nice. At first, Ellie was surprised he knew Kara before, since she was one of the few people that were on the Alex-Danvers-approved list, which was whittled down to just her, basically, since people fell out of touch eventually. She felt a pull towards Kara, her personality brighter than the sun. It was such a steep contrast to Ellie’s businesslike, serious, quiet and observant personality. Kara taught her how to look at the bright side, to feel. She found it rather strange that Kara, the alien, was more human than her. 

Kara was a human version of a puppy. Contrary to popular belief that Alex was the one who coined the term, it was actually her. And if anyone asked, she had just as much embarrassing stories about Kara as Alex or Eliza did. Maybe even more, because Kara was once her roommate.

“KARA!” Ellie yelled, stomping into the blonde’s bedroom. “You ate my pizza slice!”

“No I didn’t!”

“You promised to share and leave some for me!”

“I did!”

“Crumbs do not count!”

Kara pouted, and Ellie flashed her a glare. “I’m calling Eliza and telling her you’re not sharing.”

“Ha! You wouldn’t.” A pause grew heavier between them. “... right?”

With a smirk, Ellie pulled out her phone and speed dialled Eliza. Ever since she told Alex she knew about Kara, she made it a point to tell Eliza too, keeping them both on speed dial and being the one to watch Kara when Alex couldn’t. Plus, she enjoyed the blonde’s company. They made a great team.

“Hello? Ellie! Is Kara oka-”

“Kara’s not sharing her food,” Ellie said immediately, to which Kara got up and tried to pounce on her. Ellie jumped back, setting her phone on speaker for both of them. 

“Kara Danvers! What have I said about sharing?!”

“I was hungry mom!” Kara whined, reaching out for the phone. Ellie side-stepped again, sticking her tongue out at Kara who was pouting at her.

“That’s not working with me. I was friends with you for a LONG time. I am now immune to the pout,” Ellie proclaimed, before yelping as Kara reached out to tickle her. “NOOOOO MY WEAKNESS!”

Kara laughed at Ellie’s misery, accidentally tripping over air in her loud, raucous laughter, and slamming down onto her bed with a loud CRACK.

“Girls? What was that?”

“Oop, Eliza, gotta go, bye!” Ellie hung up the phone as they both stared at the broken bed and then at each other. 

“Okay… I can explain-”

“If you’re going to tell me you’re an alien, don’t bother. I already know,” Ellie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Kara’s eyes widened dramatically, as she let out a loud gasp, ungracefully leaping off of the bed and then stumbling over air. 

“How?! I kept it so well hidden!” Kara pouted, folding her arms and pouting… while hovering slightly over the ground. Ellie noted that while Kara seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, her shoulders now looked looser than they were around her. Her tone did have a bit of fear, as if Ellie was going to stab her on the spot just for being an alien.

“First of all, you’re terrible at keeping secrets and lying. Second, I grew up with you… you really think I wouldn’t notice the pod crashing and then suddenly there’s a girl in school who literally doesn’t know anything? Third of all… how do you explain that?” Ellie gestured at the bed. “Kara, you have broken more furniture than two people going at it like jackrabbits.”

“Hey! I can lie perfectly well,” Kara defended.

“Hm, okay. When we were kids, I came over once. Eliza was showing you how to use the toaster. She went off, I turned around to talk to Alex for a moment, then I heard this crash. I turned right back around to face you and there was no toaster anymore. You lied and said there was no toaster to begin with. Then, when I went outside with Alex, outside the window was a broken toaster. Coming back in, I noticed you frantically trying to explain to Eliza something while holding a piece of toast. I asked you where you got the toast from and you said that there were pre-toasted bread in the house.”

“Those exist!” Kara argued.

“Not in Midvale you dolt,” Ellie huffed, before taking pity on Kara. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone you’re an alien. I knew from before, and honestly, you’re still pretty cool to be with. Even if you did break my gaming console once.”

Kara turned red, cheeks flaming. “Oh my Rao you knew about that.”

“Kara, you were the last person with it,” Ellie deadpanned. “Also, how do people not figure out that you’re an alien? You’re floating, for God’s sake!”

Kara squeaked, realizing that she was indeed floating, as she waved her hands wildly and tried to swim back to the ground. Literally. 

They still had to explain the bed, however, to one Alex Danvers, who had come over and just gaped at the damage her sister caused. After explaining that Kara now knew that Ellie knew that she was an alien and a full question and answer session, Alex turned her attention to the smashed bed. 

“What happened.”

“I dunno, Alex, your sister had one hell of a time!” Ellie smirked, earning her a squeak from Kara and Alex spinning around to face her sister with horror in her eyes. 

“KARA ZOR-EL DANVERS!”

“Ellie I hate you.”

“You love me, silly alien. Plus, don’t lie! I will never unhear the day where someone called you ‘daddy’!”

“I DO NOT NEED TO HEAR THIS!” Alex screamed, storming away. Kara, on the other hand, was practically sinking into the ground.

“I didn’t even know you were here! I don’t do this when you’re around!” Kara whined, forcing Ellie to double over in laughter as Alex came back, pointing a finger at Kara.

“Wow. I didn’t know you were wild! So how many people have you fucked, daddy?” Ellie guffawed as Alex pulled out her phone.

“I’m calling Eliza!”

“ALEX NO!”

“Alex yes.”

Ellie knew that behind every happy person was a heavy past. And during her years as Kara’s roommate, she was pulled from bed more often than not by Kara’s sobbing, the sound of laser vision hitting the ceiling, screaming, crying. She knew that Kara was well and truly an orphan, haunted by loss and the weight of an entire planet on her shoulders. Later, Kara would admit that it was Krypton. She spent many years in a phantom zone, Ellie learned from Alex. A place where time never passed and it was so incredibly lonely and soul-crushing. Kara explained that Superman was her cousin, but she was left with the Danvers. 

It was hard to miss the bitterness in her tone as she talked about the caped crusader of Metropolis, and Ellie put two and two together that Kara hated being alone. It also explained her dislike of tight spaces, the reaction to being put in a locker when she was younger. Kara was claustrophobic. Kara didn’t like losing people. Kenny and Jeremiah had been lost to her, like the entire planet of Krypton. Kara has super speed and flight. She could get to anybody in the world. But when somebody was dead, Kara couldn’t simply fly to them. They were lost, lost forever, never to be reached ever again. Kara had suffered enough loss. She didn’t need any more piled on top of her.

At some point, she nearly lost Alex as well. Sometimes, Ellie would bail out Alex with a sigh.

“Not a word of this to Kara,” Alex groused bitterly as Ellie drove them past the precinct and away from mistakes. Ellie gave her a side-eye, before refocusing back on the road. 

“I don’t have to, you know that.”

At times, Ellie wondered if she was a better person than Alex in terms of being there for Kara. Alex got herself arrested more times than she could count, and every time Kara asked her why Alex was crashing on their couch all of a sudden, Ellie would bluff and say that Alex missed them and was being an extreme softie. Kara would smile and laugh, saying that Alex was a teddy bear on the inside (which Ellie wholeheartedly agreed) but she knew that Kara was upset at seeing her sister on a self-destructive path. But the extent of how bad Kara was hurting? Kara lied. She lied and lied until even Alex wasn’t sure what was Kara’s true mental state anymore.

Ellie didn’t push. She offered Kara comfort when needed, but she could see the gigantic weight still hanging over her. She didn’t know what to do to help. So she offered Kara a hand, made her not feel so alone. All she saw was Kara get better at hiding it. 

When they graduated from school, they both moved out, living separately. They both got a job at CatCo, Ellie becoming one of their best photographers, Kara becoming Cat’s assistant. Alex had gotten a job with the FBI (Ellie knew Alex was lying- the DEO approached her soon after with a job offer. She said she would think about it. Her engineering skills were nothing to be scoffed at, and her ties to an alien? Solid gold for this… place) and was pulling her life together… until the plane to Geneva was going to crash.

“Kara… WHAT THE FUCK.”

“Alex was on that plane!” she defended herself, sopping wet from the water, pouting. Ellie huffed. As soon as she saw the flight to Geneva being saved by some mysterious woman, she already knew. Kara was going to be the death of her. 

God, was this what Alex felt like when she was younger?

“You could have at least worn a mask!” Ellie pointed out. 

“There was no time!” Kara pointed out, trying to dry her hair. 

“... is she a human wrecking ball?” the newscaster was saying.

Ellie stifled a laugh, realizing that Kara had once sung Wrecking Ball because a guy had broken up with her. Kara shot her a glare, then turned it to the television, as if going to heat vision it on the spot. 

“Try saving a plane for the first time and see how it goes!” Kara seethed, and Ellie burst out laughing.

“Adorable superhero.”

With a following reveal to Winn, the computer guy that Ellie geeks out with over machinery and science, all three of them try to cobble together a proper uniform for Kara. Alex may have said no superheroing, but Ellie firmly believed that Kara should be who she wanted to be, though she had to pull Kara aside for a talk.

“You becoming a superhero will mean that you will lose some people, Kara. Are you still sure you want to do this?”

“I can’t let this planet die like Krypton. I have these powers, I can do something with them. I can save them!”

Ellie bit her lip, gripping Kara’s shoulders tightly. “You can’t save everybody, Kara.”

“I’ll still try,” Kara said stubbornly.

Ellie let her go, and that was that. 

Alex confronted her later on. “You encouraged her to be a superhero?”

“Alex… it’s her choice.”

“She has to hide for her own safety!” Alex raged.

“Do you want your sister to hide forever?!” Ellie snapped back. “You shot her down!”

“It was for her own safety! She can’t be a superhero!” 

Ellie took a step back suddenly. “I can’t do this. Go and talk to your sister.”

“What?”

“Talk it out!” Ellie yelled back. “You can’t run to me. All I did was hear her desire to be a superhero and encouraged her to do what she wanted to do. You haven’t heard her reason, Alex. You both need to talk about shit. And what she needs now is guidance, not anger. And Alex? She did all that for YOU. Even if you talk her out of being a superhero… the least you could say is a thank you.”

With that, she pushed Alex out of her apartment. “See you later, Agent Danvers.”

It took some time, but Kara was slowly adjusting to being a superhero, and Ellie had never seen Kara look as free as she did while flying. With some convincing from James and Winn, she reluctantly accepted the DEO’s job offer, only if she could still work as a photographer at CatCo.

They agreed, asking her to be one of those keeping an eye on Supergirl. So she was trained to be a field agent as well as being one of their engineers, though the only time she would be in action as a field agent is if Supergirl was in trouble in her vicinity. With her job as a photographer, it was relatively easy to be on the scene.  
Kara had whined about the name. 

“I wanted something cooler!”

“Were you expecting to be called Superwoman? ‘Cause that’s cliche as all hell.”

“It makes me sound like a kid!”

“... you are.”

For the most part, it became relatively clear that Ellie was part of the DEO after a while and Supergirl’s identity was kept a secret, even though Ellie complained that glasses and a ponytail does zero wonders for Kara’s identity.

But… Cat Grant had suspicions.

“I understand that you are part of that black ops team,” Cat started, looking critically over at Ellie who was sweating nervously. “I have to ask… is Kiera also part of the black ops team?”

“Uhm…” Her phone went off, as she sighed. “Sorry, Ms. Grant. Duty calls.”

“Hmph.” Cat leaned back and levelled Ellie with a powerful gaze. She shrank back slightly from it. “It is a wonder why I haven’t fired you for two jobs. But, as it stands, you are, besides Jimmy Olsen, one of my best photographers and it is a shame to let you go because your photos are rather marvellous.” She leaned forward. “Could you and Jimmy perhaps…?”

“A photo?” Ellie sighed. “Sure.”

“Excellent. Now go. I don’t think an alien likes to be kept waiting.”

Kryptonite, Ellie learned, was one of the few things that could kill Kryptonians. Ellie had spent most of her time when she was at the DEO trying to find a way to negate the effects of Kryptonite. Unfortunately, chemistry was not her strong point, so she spent days asking Kara about Kryptonite and trying to understand it. 

Then Livewire shows up. She shows up and ruins everything. She ruins Ellie’s new electrical insulator suit (which offends Ellie more than her taunts of being a photographer for CatCo), kicks Kara’s ass, kidnaps Cat Grant, and goes off to God knows where. It was around this point that Kara seeks her out for a small heart-to-heart.

“Ellie?” Kara asked meekly, as Ellie was outside CatCo taking a smoke break. Ellie paused to turn her head, smiling at the blonde assistant/superhero.

“And the Superpuppy arrives,” Ellie joked, as Kara gave her a flat look then looked distastefully at the cigarette. 

“Not over that nickname, by the way.”

“You love it.”

“That I do,” Kara sighed, as they reached a small lull, one that Ellie knew was Kara trying to gather up all her courage to tell Ellie something important. She took a long drag from her cigarette, puffing out a small smoke ring. “I don’t want to lose anybody.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“I know.”

“It’s so frustrating and hard being a superhero, and they think I won’t be able to do it, and Rao, they just drive me so insane because they insist I can’t do it, and it’s got me thinking, what if I really can’t? What if I fail this planet like I failed Krypton? What if Alex gets hurt and dies? What if you die? Rao, humans are so fragile and even though I’m really fast I’m always worried that I’ll be one second late and something bad will happen. But I have all these powers and I can’t help but do something because I’m literally the only one who can and they’re afraid of me and-”

Ellie cut off her ramble.

“Kara Zor-El Danvers. They are not afraid of you. They’re afraid of what you can do. And humans are a very selfish species and so very afraid. Deep down, we all know we are fragile, so they find some way to reduce you, bring you down to our level because they see your abilities as a threat. But listen to me. You are no threat. You are doing the best you can. You don’t owe this planet anything because if this planet dies, it’s our fault. We destroyed it. And Kara…” Ellie sighed, dropping her cigarette despite it being unfinished and stomped on it. “Everybody dies at some point.”

“I don’t want to lose anyone else,” Kara admitted, tears filling up her eyes. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“I know. How about this: as long as I’m alive, I will never, ever leave you alone. If I die early, it would be because of my own stupidity or a disease. Not because you failed to save me. Okay?”

Kara looked uncomfortable. “And if I don’t-”

“I trust you, Kara.”

“I- okay.”

“I think you need to speak with your sister about this,” Ellie said gently.

“I don’t want to.” 

“Kara…”

But Kara was gone with a whoosh and a distant boom of the sound barrier breaking. With a heavy sigh, Ellie flicked open her lighter and watched the flames dance in front of her eyes.

“I know you won’t tell her anything,” Ellie began, speaking to the air, but she knew Kara could hear her. “But just consider telling someone.”

Ellie likes flames. Flames were the result of combustion. It produces heat and light but it’s the reaction of oxygen and fuel, or hydrocarbons. It could be complete or incomplete. Orange flames were the result of incomplete combustion, not all the oxygen had reacted with the hydrocarbon. Orange flames were not that hot as compared to blue flames. 

Kara was like a flame. What kept her going was love and companionship from other people and whoever stood behind her, producing the heat and light that comforted other people, her joyous personality and her happiness radiating off of her like heat. But not all of the love could fuel her. She was an orange flame, not reaching her full potential. She was still sad, tired, lonely, depressed. Ellie caught Kara sitting in the Kryptonite room, staring into space once.

“Kara.”

All she could do was watch Kara stare into space, zone out. They fought aliens together. Alex and Ellie discovered Hank Henshaw was J’onn J’onzz, a Green Martian. There was an earthquake, and Kara solar flared and fell sick.

“No,” Ellie said firmly, blocking the doorway out. Alex and Ellie were busy fussing over her being sick.

“Being sick sucks!” Kara whined, nose stuffed. All Alex and Ellie could do was laugh as Kara continued to be clumsy and yell in pain every time she stubbed her toe or faceplanted into the floor.

But Kara called in a tearful frenzy later that night.

“I don’t want to be human,” she sobbed. “It makes me miss Krypton and Rao and the sky and my life there and my mom and my dad and… and…”

“Kara, slow down.”

“The yellow sun gives me powers,” she explained. “The red sun… it made me human.”

It wasn’t the first time Ellie had seen Kara’s flames waver. It was the first time she saw Kara’s flames in the shade of red. Red, for Rao.

She ran over, calling Alex along the way. Kara doesn’t let them in, so they sit outside her apartment in relative silence, listening to Kara’s cries inside. The process repeats itself over and over when Astra and Non come by to kill her repeatedly. Bizarro turns things inside out, sending Kara into an angry, sad state. She screams at Ellie once, telling her to leave, and Ellie complies.

Kara’s flames wavered. Ellie wanted to scream at Astra. She tells Cat that she would no longer be working in the offices of CatCo, but will still be sending submissions to her.

“Don’t tell me you’re quitting.”

In response, Ellie threw down a file of clear shots of Supergirl, with Kara’s permission of course. 

“I am now Supergirl’s official photographer.”

After that ballsy move that shocked even Cat Grant, she spent her time at the DEO creating a weapon related to fire, attempts at an anti-kryptonite suit before going fuck all and creating a kryptonite powered suit. This angered Kara even more, and this time, Ellie screams back that they were up against Kryptonians and they should even the playing field. 

“I’m a Kryptonian!” Kara shouted back.

“It’s only for your backup should you go down!”

“I can handle them!”

“They’re trying to kill you!”

“They’re my family!” Kara all but sobs the last word, turning heel and flying out before Ellie had the chance to respond.

And then, Black Mercy. Ellie returned to CatCo at an alarmed signal from Winn after a solar flare knocked out communications. She scowled at the new assistant as Cat demanded that Kara return. 

The argument had left Ellie reeling. Of course Kara wouldn’t want Kryptonite. It hurts her, and it would hurt her aunt and uncle. Her last bits of family left. She wanted to cling on to that, cling on to that small bit of Krypton that she had left. But Kara doesn’t know that they were far from being reasoned with. She sighed, before coming to the apartment with James and Winn and Alex. They had a lot to talk about. She would apologize for hurting Kara’s feelings, but not for the suit. 

They stepped in and her blood ran cold.

With Maxwell Lord’s help, they created the virtual reality simulation that could pull Kara out. They tried to kick Winn and James out of the DEO, but she insisted they stay.

“I don’t give a flying fuck about NDAs,” Ellie spat. “They stay. They already know. End of story.”

It’s a risky choice for Alex to go in, but they decided it was for the best. Ellie for once thanked Astra, before reconsidering her opinions. Maybe Astra could be reasoned with. Maybe, just maybe…

As the Black Mercy pulls away and withers onto the floor, Alex makes a point to stomp repeatedly on it, completely crushing it.

“Alex! It’s already dead.”

“It isn’t dead enough!”

Kara woke up… and it’s not the same. Her eyes went coldly over the room as everyone stepped back.

“Who did this to me?”

“Kara-” Alex began, but Kara’s head snapped towards her, eyes widening with anger, the telltale red of heat vision flaring up in her blue eyes.

_**“WHO THE FUCK DID THIS TO ME?!”** _

“Non…” Winn spoke up, hesitantly. 

And then she was gone. Ellie was the first one to react, pulling Alex along. 

“She’s gonna kill him. And when she does, she’ll never forgive herself.”

“Ellie,” Alex’s eyes were wide, gripping onto her shirt. “I saw Krypton. Her fantasy, the world she always wanted to live in, was Krypton. Her family. She had to lose it all again.”

Ellie’s nose flared. “I’m going to kill him myself.”

Non got away. Astra didn’t. J’onn claimed he killed her, and Ellie wasn’t sure she wanted to be the one to tell Kara the truth. Alex had to be the one. She found out later that Alex did tell her, and that resulted in a break from the DEO.

She saw the red in Kara’s flames again that day and while it made her stronger for the moment, the truth was that it made her weaker. Kara chased her and Alex away from the door to her apartment now.

It showed up again, soon enough, in the form of Red Kryptonite. 

“You’re one of those selfish people, afraid of what I can do,” Kara sneered, red veins pulsing for a moment as she smashed the Kryptonite suit, uncaring of whether the Kryptonite affected her or not. “So you built this, to keep me in check.” She lifted Ellie by the throat, for the whole world to see. 

“Kara… stop… I wanted to say sorry…”

“You don’t even deny it!” Kara howled into her face, and for a moment, the image of Cat Grant being thrown off of her balcony flashed across her mind. 

“This isn’t you! You know I wouldn’t do anything to you. I built this against Non!” Ellie garbled out, trying to appeal to Kara.

“I’m sick of people trying to control me, I’m so sick of this rinse and repeat cycle. With me, it ends. It all ends.”

“Kara!” Ellie protested, “I have encouraged you from the start! Alex isn’t trying to control you-”

“Oh yes she is!” Kara yelled back. “She’s always resented me, the superpowered alien, who crashed into her life and got all the attention. So what does she do? She reduces me to what little I am, down to your level, under the guise of keeping me safe. She hates that I’m the one getting all the attention, so she tries to stop me. And you?” She scoffed, gesturing down to the broken suit. “Approaching me with that Kryptonite suit, what do you think you’re doing?”

Ellie choked as the DEO agents surrounded them. 

“This isn’t you,” Ellie tried again, and maybe just for a moment, her eyes soften. She lowered Ellie back onto the ground and stared at her.

“Supergirl?” J’onn tried.

“Who the hell are you to know who I am? It’s not like you bothered to ask me enough anyways,” Kara sneered, and backhanded Ellie into a bunch of DEO agents, knocking them all down like bowling pins. Ellie heard a snap and groaned as she felt her left wrist searing with pain.

Then she passed out.

She woke up to Kara crying at her bedside and apologizing and apologizing until she completely cut herself off from Ellie.

Healing took time, Ellie knew. Kara had been speaking the truth under Red Kryptonite. She hadn’t asked her enough. As the days go by and Supergirl doesn’t show, Ellie meekly returned to Cat after the media mogul called her. J’onn was arrested. 

“Supergirl vanished.”

“I know.” Alien technology was great enough to fix up her arm lickety split, but it still throbbed when she exerted it too much. She wondered if it could be exported to hospitals. “Does that mean I’m fired?” She wondered if Kara was doing okay.

“Sit,” Cat ordered and Ellie complied, sinking into the chair with a bone-deep weariness. Cat looked her over and tsked, pushing a packet of wet wipes over. “Freshen yourself up. You look like no photographer of mine.”

“Sorry…”

“Do not be sorry,” Cat scoffed. “Whatever on Earth could you be sorry for?”

“I…” Ellie resorted to shrugging her shoulders. Cat sighed.

“Don’t spend your time thinking about what you regret. What did you do to combat it?”

“Pardon?”

“Tell Kiera to stop moping that she threw me off of my balcony.” At that, Ellie sat up straight and stared at Cat.

“... what?”

“Oh come on now, Agent Hunter. Did you really think a pair of glasses and a ponytail could fool me?”

Ellie left the building in a hurry, racing to Kara’s apartment and practically barrelling down the door.  
“You need to work on a better disguise,” Ellie said bluntly, staring at Kara eating ice cream pathetically in her supersuit. “Cat Grant figured you out.”

“Of course she did. I guess I have to hand in my resignation letter now,” Kara said unhappily, but Ellie marched over and blocked Kara’s view of the TV. “Hey!”

“She’s asking you to come back.”

“Seriously? She’s asking me, the same person who threw her off her balcony as a demonstration of power, to come back and still be her assistant? No way.”

“Kara Zor-El Danvers,” Ellie said firmly. “Her exact words to me, and I quote, “Tell Kiera to stop moping that she threw me off of my balcony.””

“Not gonna happen… she’s gone crazy… no offence to her.”

“Kara, she said you can’t waste time thinking about what you regret. She said what can you do to combat it?”

“Never ever be Supergirl again,” Kara huffed.

“You have got to be shitting me.”

“Well, I’m the bad guy now!” Kara whined, throwing a hand at the TV, showing clips of Crazy Kara hurting Alex, Ellie and Cat. “The government doesn’t trust me anymore.”

“Then you start small again,” Ellie sighed, sinking onto the sofa next to Kara. “Like when you first started. Saving cats from trees and the like.”

“No.”

“Jesus Christ, Kara, you can’t just give up.”

“Humpf.”

“Fine, if you’re really ready to give up Supergirl, I’ll support you.” Ellie’s phone rang, indicating an emergency within the DEO. She stood up to leave, but she turned around to give Kara a smile. “But that doesn’t mean you should stop being Kara Danvers either. Do me a favour… and just show up to work.”

Ellie swears up and down that Kara’s flames brightened when she said that.

When she got to the DEO, there was madness. Alex and J’onn were being arrested and taken away.

“What’s going on?” she asked Vasquez.

“They’re arresting anyone who knew J’onn was a Martian and shipping them off to CADMUS.”

“What the fuck.”

Kara found out. Ellie had run over and told her. Together, they hatched a plan with Lucy Lane to break J’onn and Alex out of the truck, rendering them fugitives and away from National City.

CADMUS would have broken J’onn and Alex. Kara would lose a father figure and her sister. Kara would lose more than anyone could ever anticipate. Out of fear, Ellie slept on Kara’s couch, frightened that Kara would do something stupid and fly to Alex, revealing their location. She would hear sobs and whimpers.

And then Barry came.

When Ellie had finished wrapping her mind around the whole multiverse thing, it was lights out for Ellie. Non had taken over, and Kara was well and truly alone.

She couldn’t say much for that time period. No one would tell her. 

When it was well and truly over, Lena Luthor came in.

And then things got… _interesting._


	2. Blowout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie and Kara. Kara and Ellie. Ellie and Lena. Lena and Ellie. Ellie thinks that Kara should see a therapist. Kara disagrees. Alex comes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Season 1 is a lot more like a prologue. This is where the true retelling starts, which is why I go in a lot of detail for episodes and seasons. I initially wanted to do it like one chapter per season, but that would result in extremely long chapters. To clarify, Ellie isn't a vigilante. She never will be. She's still a DEO agent through and through, it's just that she exists as Kara's main backup agent but will be mistaken as a vigilante (despite having her identity revealed). This whole story is told in Ellie's perspective, despite the main focus on Kara. Also, I apologize for the really messy beginning of Season 2's first few eps, I didn't quite watch it and therefore couldn't go into detail HAHA. 
> 
> For the non-Kara interactions, it was mostly to set up Ellie's character, since I set her up as not exactly a background character. Also to provide some context to the scenes, like Mon-El deciding to help a random homeless person and then getting kidnapped by Cadmus or later on Alex's coming out. I'm technically rewriting quite a lot of scenes to fit Ellie, so I hope you all don't mind. 
> 
> also cw pls fix lena and kara

That whole first year was simply a run up. Ellie could say it was all a mere prologue to the next few years. It was interesting, but when Lena Luthor came in, Kara’s story- Ellie’s story- needed to be told in more detail.

“OOOOOOOH… you got that look on your face,” Ellie smirked, pointing her spoon at Kara.

“What look?”

“The I-have-a-crush-on-somebody look,” Ellie grinned evilly. Beside her, Winn jumped up eagerly.

“Ooh! Do tell!”

“I do NOT have a crush on somebody!” Kara hissed, but the forehead crinkle gave it away.

“I do not need to know,” Alex declared.

“I do!” Winn grinned. “Was my earlier prediction right? Are you, in fact, gay?”

“WINN!” Kara screeched.

“Sexuality was never a thing on Krypton,” Alex called back. “People loved whoever.”

“You’re a pan!” Ellie shouted, pointing at Kara, who looked confused.

“I’m a kitchen tool?”

“No! You’re pansexual.”

“I don’t think I want to have… um… S-E-X with a pan,” Kara said, looking disgusted.

“ALEX!” Winn shouted. “KARA IS AN UNCULTURED PEASANT SWINE!”

“Did… you seriously spell out sex…? Superpuppy, you’re forgetting we were once roommates. Hearing a girl call you daddy will forever haunt my dreams,” Ellie deadpanned. “ALEX! What have you been teaching your sister?”

“I don’t want to go through the whole sex talk with her!” Alex whined.

“To be honest, Kryptonian and human biology aren’t that much different so…” Kara shrugged.

“OKAY, did not need to know that!”

“So it is true then? Has our Superpuppy finally upgraded to Superdaddy?” Ellie wiggled her eyebrows and Kara groaned, cheeks turning red.

“I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH!” 

“Ellie, I swear to God I will kick you out of my house,” Alex groused.

“I think it’s finally kicking in,” Kara said.

“What is?”

“I saved Lena Luthor.”

Ellie’s jaw hung open as the unlit cigarette fell out. “You saved… Lena Luthor?” She stared hard at Kara. “You like her.”

“Well, she is very pretty…”

“YOU LIKE HER!” Ellie shouted, and Winn began to roll with laughter, but Alex seemed quite serious.

“You like her? Kara, she’s the younger sister of Lex Luthor.”

“So what? She hasn’t done anything,” Ellie shrugged.

“Yet,” Alex pointed out.

“By that logic, Kara is evil ‘cause she is Astra’s niece,” Ellie deadpanned. “Winn is also evil because he’s the son of Toyman.”

“She seems interesting and nice,” Kara defended, steering the topic away from Astra and Non. 

After the Myriad thing, Kara… was broken. She tried to kill herself by pushing Fort Rozz into space, without any chance to return. But Alex pulled her back into Earth, with the help of Ellie and Winn fixing up Kara’s pod. 

Her flames had completely shut off. It felt like she was staring at a robot ever since then. Kara had thrown herself into missions as Supergirl, intent on destroying herself. More often than not, it was almost a success.

Then came Lena Luthor.

After Myriad, Ellie moved in next door to Kara as everybody was terrified for her safety. No one would tell Ellie what happened during Myriad, which was weird. Did she do something wrong?

Ellie would puzzle over that as she would tinker with her flame suit in her home, trying really hard not to set off the smoke alarm.

No smoke alarms were safe around Kara Danvers!

“ELLIE!” Kara yelled, bursting in. Ellie yelped, screwdriver bouncing from hand to hand as she threw it up in the air in fright.

“Kara! Jesus Christ, learn how to knock!” Ellie sighed, spinning around and leaning heavily against her worktable, chest heaving with the scare. “Not all of us have super hearing.”

“L-Corp is having a renaming ceremony!” Kara burst out.

“Okay, and?”

“You don’t get it! Something’s going to happen and kill Lena! Rao, what if something happens? Like anti-Luthor people. It’s dangerous and after the whole thing with the helicopter it’s really bad and all that and- and.”

“You need to chillax, you’ve been worked up since that pod crashed,” Ellie sighed, folding her arms. “Chill.”

“I can’t chill! It’s dangerous and something will happen! The DEO will be there right? Right?”

“Lena has her own personal security there, it should be fine,” Ellie said, turning to face her invention. Kara supersped to Ellie, pouting in her face. “... Superpuppy, the DEO is going to be there either way, because it’s Lena Luthor.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that if Lena is revealed to be planning something bad they’ll put her on the watch list and will make no hesitations if she makes any anti-alien moves.”

“But Lena’s only trying to make a name for herself out of her family!” Kara protested.

“Yes, I know. You’ve been repeating it for the past few days since you and Clark saw her.”

“If something happens, don’t arrest her!” Kara said quickly. “I think it’s all against her anyways.”

“To be honest, I don’t even know what the hatred’s about. What’s in a name? If someone was called Hitler by name you wouldn’t think that they would automatically go on to perform a genocide right?” Ellie scoffed. “Plus she’s smart. I wanna nerd out with another gal. There’s not enough nerd gal power.”

“You’re a fan too.”

“I’m not complaining. LuthorCorp- no- L-Corp’s STEM departments are to die for. Even though they used it for very… immoral means, the technology is top notch. Sucks it can’t help.”

“That’s exactly what Lena’s doing!” Kara yelled eagerly. “She’s turning it into a force for good!”

“Hey, if the DEO hadn’t snapped me up already, I would have happily joined L-Corp,” Ellie laughed, running a hand over her suit. “What do you think?”

“Hot.”

“Superpuppy, you literally have a new waifu.”

“... you can choke.”

“Harder, superdaddy.”

The ceremony… becomes a disaster. It became obvious it was an assassination attempt, as Ellie put her new weapon to the test, launching compressed balls of flame from her wrists, watching as John Corben launched Alex aside and was about to raise his gun… 

BANG!

John collapsed, and Ellie caught sight of the smoking gun in Lena’s hands. 

Well, I’ll be damned. 

“You have no idea of the gravity you just did,” Ellie chuckled, helping Lena up with a hand.

“Are you going to arrest me now?”

“On the contrary, I’d like to thank you. Someone will be very happy to see their sister alive,” Ellie grinned, seeing Kara envelop her sister in a hug.

“Oh… that was Kara’s sister.” Lena sighed with relief, looking down at Corben.

“He’s going to jail now, it’s cool.” Ellie folded her arms.

“Are you supposed to be Supergirl’s buddy…?”

“I like to think of myself as Superpuppy’s backup because I don’t appear unless I absolutely need to.”

“Superpuppy?” Lena asked, amused.

“Erm… just a nickname I have for Supergirl.”

“Colour me intrigued. And may I ask who you are, ‘Supergirl’s backup’?”

Ellie took her hand and firmly shook it. “Agent Ellie Hunter, at your service. FBI.”

“That is the lamest way to hide where you work,” Lena snorted.

“I… it’s not! The FBI is a totally good excuse,” Ellie defended, though on the inside, she had to give props to Lena. Supergirl clearly didn’t work with the FBI, so someone did their homework. This woman was interesting. She could see why Kara liked her. Pretty too.

Oh she was going to tease Kara for this.

The days afterward consisted of pretty much this. Kara coming in to scream comments about Lena Luthor. 

That was it.

Though the interesting part was that interlaced between all the comments and “She’s so pretty!” was the notion to become a journalist, after Lena had apparently said Kara could have fooled her for being a journalist.

“- and Cat Grant and what am I going to do, I mean it’s Cat and-!”

“Cat will actually be impressed with you that you’re standing up to what you want to do and saying it and doing something about it,” Ellie called back, after tracking down Mon-El, Ellie needed to hit the showers but Kara was blocking her way.

“What is she fires me?!”

“First: she won’t. You’re too good of an assistant. Second, I did that when I said I would become Supergirl’s photographer and not work from the office, focusing on the DEO stuffs and creating shit to keep all of our asses safe.”

“But- but-“

“Relax. Cat’s not going to snap your head off.”

“She can’t.”

“I meant figuratively. Heck, I bet she’s even waiting for you to go to her office and just tell her, geez.”

“Why do you and Alex have the same advice?!” Kara groaned.

“Because we’re both right. Now go, seriously.”

Ellie would realize that Kara ended up being Lena Luthor’s first friend. And although Ellie and Lena would find amicable ground at first, it wasn’t until a day at the bar, a smoke break, an alien detection device and some hecklers did they become friends.

“Agent Hunter,” Lena greeted, sliding into the seat next to her at the bar.

“Lena Luthor,” Ellie greeted. 

The alien dive bar was closed, due to Mon-El (seriously, Ellie’s beginning to be put out of watch-Kara duty and more of babysit-Mon-El duty) hurting some people. So she sat at this out of the way bar that she found.

“I didn’t peg you for the drinking type,” Lena said. “Not for that hard stuff.”

Ellie smirked. “I work with fire. I gotta know my alcohol.”

“Did you build your things yourself?”

“I’m just glad my engineering degree wasn’t a waste,” Ellie laughed. “So, I hear you’re friends with Kara Danvers. Be warned, she will spoil your appetite.”

“She eats a lot.”

“And they’re all junk food,” Ellie laughed. “You should try handing her kale. She avoids it like the devil.”

“Oh, I have. It was like handing garlic to a vampire.”

“Let me guess: she hissed at you.”

“She did.”

“God bless that woman,” Ellie snorted, raising her glass to clink with Lena’s, both taking the shot in one go. “What brings you here?”

“A drink.”

“You’re a billionaire. You have money to deliver things to your door.”

“I think that I prefer the environment of the bar sometimes.”

“You crazy? People will hate you,” Ellie spied two people approaching them. “Case in point.”

“Skank!” Someone slurred out.

But Lena only laughed, though it sounded a little strained, much like Kara had been when she was trying to hide that she was really hurting inside. Lena’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, and Ellie wondered if Lena did the same thing as Kara sometimes, which was to go through all the hate comments against Supergirl and Kara Danvers, use her super hearing to listen for people talking bad about her, just because she deserved it and she deserved to hurt a little inside. Kara had admitted it was an unhealthy habit, but she couldn’t find anything to hurt herself with otherwise.

Alex asked her to come to her whenever she felt that way. Ellie knew better and confronted Kara every time she zoned out, bringing potstickers and shamelessly bringing up some old childhood memory or lately, Lena’s name. She wasn’t going to repeat the same mistakes, even going so far as to chastise Clark for shadowing Kara as a kid.

Oh, that was funny. First was Clark looking gobsmacked that she had figured out his secret identity. Ellie wanted to reiterate that glasses were not a good disguise. She was not an idiot, but apparently the rest of the world was. At this, Lois had cackled and traded numbers with Ellie, saying that only she was able to do that and that Clark’s face was really priceless when someone else did that. Second was Clark trying to excuse his way out of everything to which Ellie responded with, “But technology exists.”

“My calls could be traced-”

“You can fly, you know.”

“I can't leave Metropolis-”

“You have no faith in your police department.”

“I didn’t think she wanted to see me-”

“Clark,” Ellie interrupted, “you are her cousin and her last living relative and only other person of her species. Unless you pulled a Lex Luthor, there’s no way she doesn’t want to see you. She’s the only one who is shouldering everything surrounding Krypton. She grew up there, Clark. You may think you have Earth on your shoulders but she has both Krypton and Earth on her shoulders. So do me a favour, Clark-  _ Kal-El _ \- and just… establish a proper relationship with her. You abandoned her. You fix it.”

(Later, Ellie wished she could do the same for Lex or Lillian. But while Kara and Lena’s situations were similar, the circumstances were wildly different. She went to Winn to help her with Lena. James was being an ass. Alex was cautious. Ellie liked Lena. She saw Kara as Kara, and as one of Kara’s closest friends, that’s enough for her.)

Back to the bar, Ellie excused herself for a moment, needing a small smoke break. She wasn’t an idiot to see Lena’s eyes widening with fear for a tiny moment as Ellie made to leave just for a quick smoke.

“I’m not going anywhere, bright-eyes.”

“Bright-eyes?”

Ellie didn’t have the heart to tell her that Kara was singing Total Eclipse of The Heart while talking about Lena’s eyes. “You’re smart and your eyes are pretty. I thought that was clever.”

Lena laughed, a little looser but still very strained. Kara laughed way more loosely but her crinkle always gave it away. When would the similarities between her and Kara end?

So when Ellie left for the quick smoke break, she expected something to happen. She was… not wrong.

As soon as she had left, someone had flung themselves at Lena, either to flirt or to intimidate, and Lena was having none of it. 

The bar descended into absolute chaos as Ellie strolled back in, quickly dodging a flying chair as it sailed over the heads of everybody and splintered against the wall.

God, she hadn’t seen a bar this unruly since… forever.

“You and your stupid alien detection device-!”

“HEY!” Ellie shouted, feeling her pulse hammer in her ears as she saw Lena brace herself for the hit. “Leave the lady alone!”

“And who the hell are you?”

“A fucking pyromaniac.” Ellie snapped, switching on her lighter. 

“Doesn’t scare me,” he laughed. 

“But she should.” 

Lena practically flung herself away from the man, allowing Ellie to snap the lighter shut and shove the man away from Lena.

“Run!”

It was very unlike a DEO agent to run from a scene, together with a giggling billionaire CEO as Supergirl arrived at the scene to dispel the violence. She raised an eyebrow at the two as Ellie waved at Supergirl in an almost jovial manner.

The first thing Kara said was, “The boss is gonna kill you, you know.”

“I know.”

“Miss Luthor!” Kara tried not to sound surprised that Lena was there. “Why are you here?”

Knowing Kara, she was probably listening out for Ellie (or Lena) and Ellie smirked. Kara’s face flushed a deep red, the colour of her cape and quickly looked away from the DEO agent. 

“Why, can’t a CEO have some fun?” Lena smirked playfully at Kara, and Ellie swore Kara’s face turned ten shades darker even as someone hurled an alcohol bottle at Kara’s head, breaking on impact. But it barely phased Kara, who gaped at Lena as if her presence was akin to a goddess.

“Yeah, um, Supergirl? Bar fight?”

“Huh? Oh yes. But you’re still in trouble with the director.” Kara pointed at Ellie who gave a whatever gesture.

“I can speak with the director,” Lena said smoothly.

“Bright-eyes, no.”

“Lena, yes.” Lena shot Supergirl a flirtatious grin that made Kara reach up to adjust nonexistent glasses and swallow nervously. 

“Bright-eyes?” Kara asked.

“Oh, because her eyes reminded me of a song a friend was singing to me.” She watched Kara’s face turn tomato red.

Ellie also learned that while Kara was a dork, Lena was extra. She and Winn are going to have so much fun with Kara. But duty called, and while Lena let Ellie accompany her home, Ellie was musing about Kara. Kara seemed so much happier, so much brighter these days. 

Mon-El, since he came in, was nothing but a prat. He was a Daxamite, aliens similar to Kryptonians. But both species held nothing but hate for each other. Mon-El was supposedly the last of his kind, however. And while Ellie found his personality to be immature and part frat boy, she couldn’t help but feel bad. Kara as a kid was sad and lonely because no human would ever understand what it was like to be the last of your kind. To carry an entire culture was an equivalent to Atlas carrying the world.

Kara and Mon-El were both kindred spirits, and Ellie reluctantly had to admit that them talking aliens and stuff to each other was good for Kara. It made her feel less alone and it gave her an outlet that neither she nor Alex could fill. And she could see Kara not need to hold back around him. She could hug him without him snapping in two like a normal human. But she really didn’t like him. 

So when Ellie dropped off Lena, who gave her her number, finding the pyromaniac agent engineer to be amusing, she returned to the DEO to find Kara absolutely screaming at Mon-El.

It wasn’t often that Kara lost her temper at anybody. She had a pretty godlike patience (with people only. If it was anything else, she’d whine and complain about being able to speed up the process) and a relatively good tolerance level. But Mon-El seemed to be testing her. 

“You can’t flirt or fight with everybody and anybody you meet!”

“On Daxam, it was-”

“THIS ISN’T DAXAM ANYMORE!” Kara screamed back, and then all was silent. “It’s… it’s all gone, okay? Gone.”

“Kara…” Alex tried, but Kara spun around with a whirl of her cape and took off.

“I still don’t get this planet,” Mon-El spat.

“I don’t blame you,” Ellie said. “Kara took years to learn.”

“Maybe you should speak to her-” Alex tried, but Ellie huffed.

“Kara probably needs you more now. I’ll deal with this-” Ellie saw a distant flash of orange and yellow. “- not.”

“Kara!” Alex yelled, reaching for her earpiece.

“Winn,” Ellie called as he turned in his chair. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s blocking my cameras- I can’t reach Kara either. Hang on, I-”

Ellie reached the flame suit that she designed. She was still a DEO agent, she was just… a special case, maybe? Winn joked that she could become a vigilante because the suit was way different from the normal DEO agent attire. Ellie had programmed it to be responsive to her, and her only.

Looking back, Ellie realized that without the flame suit, she wouldn’t have seen Kara out there on the battlefield and missed all the moments that made her a hero. She wouldn’t have seen Kara’s rises and falls, wouldn’t have seen Kara’s flames flicker and waver or roar and engulf. She was specially trained to be the backup and not some vigilante (which was probably why Kara got so mad at Guardian later and not at her) for Kara, as well as a frontliner for agents. Even after all these years, she and Kara were forces to be reckoned with together. Plus Alex? Triple trouble. 

However, Ellie could see Kara’s brows furrow when she sees Ellie in the suit or Alex on the frontlines. Ellie knows that Kara knows that humans were fragile, and that she can’t bear to lose anybody else. They’ve had arguments, fights about this. But every time Kara storms away with tears, Alex would come over with ice cream and promises to be safe or Ellie would take Kara to a place and they would smash cars together. Both of them do have legitimate excuses for being out in the field, however. It was their job. Granted, Alex was specifically a field agent and a medic while Ellie was an engineer and could probably afford to stay in the DEO like Winn… they were both trained in field combat and Ellie’s closeness with Supergirl made her a vulnerable target (which Kara got mad at after some Cadmus thugs tried to take her down) so they trained her to be her own hero. She had her skills, her equipment and the DEO’s backing and she couldn’t stop being on the field even if she wanted to.

There are days where it felt like the opposite was true, where Kara was more vulnerable than they were. Where Alex would pace and scream at Kara for being so stupid to go out there and they would both sob and sob. Kara seemed to forget that she wasn’t immortal sometimes, but most of the time, in her downward hunch and blue-eyed tears, Ellie knew that Kara didn’t care that she wasn’t immortal. Most of the time, Kara would rather die. Oh, Kara would forever sugarcoat it with being heroic and self-sacrificing but deep down they both knew that Kara craved to be free of the threat of being lonely, from the burden placed on her shoulders even when she wasn’t a superhero, Kara just wanted it all to end.

The only reason why she hadn’t was Alex. 

Ellie was terrified; the sisters’ relationship took tremendous ups and downs, so far down sometimes that Ellie would burst into Kara’s apartment for fear of Kara just somehow solar flaring and using the human way of killing herself because Alex couldn’t seem to tether her down anymore.

This seemed like one of those times as the flame suit activated its jetpack and she streaked across the sky, trying to find the super. Frantically, she called Alex.

“I don’t see her.”

_ “Keep looking, pyromaniac!” _

“I’m trying!” She landed and focused on the first piece of rubble that she saw. With a blast of her wrist flamethrowers, it melted away to reveal a sickly green glowing rock. “Motherfucker.”

_“I’m detecting Kryptonite?”_ Winn squeaked.

“Absolute motherfucker!” Ellie had to be careful of where she pointed her flames now, knowing that Kara could be vulnerable. “Supergirl? Supergirl!”

There was a rumble of trucks as DEO agents exited and began to sweep the area, as well as a bunch of NCPD officers. Alex was talking to Maggie, one of the officers in charge, looking distressed as she looked between the kryptonite and Maggie.

“Alex!” Ellie cried as she brought the green hunk of rock over. “Look.”

Alex’s face turned even paler. “We need to secure the area of all kryptonite. I want a medevac now. I want there to be no traces of kryptonite in this area, do you understand me?” Alex was shouting into a poor agent’s face, who saluted and scuttled off, as Maggie looked really concerned. 

“Alex…”

“It’s Agent Danvers.” With a thump, Mon-El landed beside Ellie as Ellie rolled her eyes inside her helmet, knowing full well that the helmet’s visor was fully transparent at the moment and not polarized. Alex hid a smirk, Maggie guffawed.

“As long as there’s no lead, I can help. I don’t think I should let her die.”

The kryptonite rock in Ellie’s palm was crushed as she squeezed her fist, startling both humans in front of her as she did. Mon-El had jumped off, taking no notice of the pyromaniac’s anger.

“He doesn’t THINK?!” Ellie seethed. “I should keep a lead knife in my holster just for this moment!”

“Ellie!” Alex scolded.

Before Ellie could retort, go off and find Kara again, a call went off in her ear. Why was Lena calling? 

“Hello?”

_ “There was an explosion downtown, with kryptonite.” _

“I noticed,” Ellie said dryly, lifting a heavy rebar using her flame suit. “What’s going-”

_“Someone’s attacking my office. I think it was a diversion.”_ There was an abrupt yell and scream. 

“Lena?” Ellie asked, suddenly taking to the sky, freezing as she hovered over Lena’s balcony. Kara had appeared, fighting the goons. Her side was stained with red as her veins pulsed green, faltering with every step.

“Ellie!” Lena said, face filled with relief as Kara swayed dangerously on her feet.

“It’s the pyromaniac!” the thugs yelled.

“Pyromaniac? God, why does everyone like calling me that? I have a name, you know!” Ellie shouted, aiming twin flamethrowers in their direction, but instead of flames, an extinguishing agent shot out of them instead, pushing back the thugs. “But hey, if it helps to have a street name like drugs y’all snort out there, I like it!”

“Ellie,” Kara rasped, and Ellie chanced a look back to see Kara on her knees with Lena trying to hold her up. 

Ellie patched a distress signal to Alex, engaging in more combat with the thugs. Beside the wrist twin flamethrowers that could double as an extinguisher and flamethrower, her helmet had a rebreather and heat seeking, night vision and infrared visor. (She had to give credits to Winn for helping her program stuff.) The power gloves had a tazer function at her fingertips. Behind her was a jetpack that was far too bulky for her taste, and two cool katanas that she could pull out and set on fire, with a utility belt that she scowled at, but reluctantly accepted. She had the option of a retractable shield, but she felt like any more things put on her back would have her falling backwards. She also had dual retractable wrist blades. The suit has a temperature regulator, shock absorbers, strength enhancers and a radar. She felt like Batman but in a power armor and obsessed with fire. If she had a cape she would imagine it to be on fire.

The tazer function worked neatly, giving an efficient zap to the thugs as they fell neatly at her feet. She looked down at them. “Sorry, did I give you a bit of a shock?”

Alex groaned, Winn laughed. Even Kara chuckled from the floor as Ellie turned right around and fumbled with her utility belt, visor unpolarizing and the front part of the helmet opening. Kara looked weak. 

“I need to get her back to the DEO,” Ellie fussed, trying to find the spray agent that would temporarily seal a wound (Alex nerding out will cure cancer one day, Ellie swears). 

“N-no…”

“Do not ‘no’ me!” Ellie snapped at Kara, forgetting that Lena was there for a moment. Kara flinched, and Ellie softened. “You shouldn’t have run out like that.”

“Sorry.”

“I don’t quite think you are,” Ellie mumbled under her breath, finding the MediGel and spraying it on Kara’s wound. “You would have fought until you dropped… and then what? We’ll let you die?”

“Agent Hunter,” Lena said firmly. “Stop.”

Ellie sighed, looking between both of them. She could see the hopelessness crowding into Kara’s eyes as she whimpered in pain. She could see Lena holding tightly onto Kara as if she would disappear.

Her helmet closed back onto her face and her visor polarized without missing a beat.

“I’ll take Ka- Supergirl from here. Thank you for calling me, Miss Luthor,” Ellie said stiffly, catching herself from saying Kara’s name and scooping up Kara bridal style with ease. The strength enhancers made her far stronger than the average human with the suit on, but was leagues away from Kara’s strength.

“She’ll be okay, right?” Lena asked.

“She’s gone through worse.”

Ellie hated that statement.

She hated it as she flew away, leaving Lena to slip into CEO mode and talk to the police. She hated it as Alex took Kara and placed her under the sun lamps. She hated it in general as she flew into a scrapyard, and laid waste to metal. Metal bent and burned and blackened under unyielding flames and she imagined Krypton to be just like the metal. She found satisfaction in it burning, so strong and solid, only to bend to a basic element.

She knew Kara wouldn’t see it that way. She would see a creation destroyed, potential lost, memory gone, like ashes in the wind. She hated that being shot for a normal human should be one of the worst things ever to be experienced, yet Kara had been through worse. Kara had narrowly escaped being these pieces of metal, from being reduced to ashes. She survived, but at what cost? She was damaged, so very damaged that Kara herself thinks that it was better to stop existing.

But she can’t, and Ellie cursed Kara for being a selfless idiot sometimes.

She tries so hard to warp herself into this world… but honestly… who was Kara anyways?

She contemplated that as she watched Kara sob softly to herself when she thought nobody was looking, smoke lazily drifting from her cigarette.

In light of that, Ellie pulled back from being Pyromaniac after the label stuck itself from Lena’s monthly attempted assassination. She worked more of a freelance photographer in her spare time, when she wasn’t locking herself in the DEO labs or her home workshop. She avoided Mon-El and Kara together like the plague, because their interactions made her feel like vomiting. She tried talking to Kara, but the superhero rebuffed her attempts at conversation about her feelings, stating that she was fine. She was fine and the president was fine and people were fine and she was speaking to Alex, so she was fine. Ellie wasn’t convinced at first, but asked Alex about it.

“Yeah, Kara’s been talking to me…”

“And you haven’t been preoccupied with Maggie that much?”

Alex flushed deep red. “She’s just a friend.”

(Ellie’s happy that Alex is happy. Eliza’s trying really hard to be supportive for Alex now. Ellie’s happy for Alex, but… she just hoped Kara would take it well.)

Ellie visits Lena more often now, making friends with Jess, her secretary, along the way. Kara had charmed her way through getting an all-access pass to Lena’s office, which Ellie sort of seethed at, but Kara pointed out that Ellie could technically crash into her balcony all the time and Lena would know it was her.

“Superpuppy, you are a GENIUS!”

Kara has the face of instant regret every time Ellie makes an ungraceful appearance on Lena’s balcony, intent on crashing both of their lunch dates sometimes when they tried to eat in. Sometimes, via faceplant, sometimes via crashing into Lena’s everything-proof window, sometimes by spraying Lena’s windows with extinguishing agent and writing out a message on it.

And Lena was a good sport about it.

With Mon-El trying to fit in at CatCo, where Kara worked, Ellie had every reason to avoid it, even going so far as to get wasted at the dive bar, much to the patrons’ amusement. Winn makes fun of her terrible singing. Mon-El had only grown more annoying and pestering to Ellie. Kara was clearly beginning to like the dude but… Ellie just could not. She could not see what made him so nice. He was funny, sure, but his moral compass was… weird, to say the least. He was sexist, misogynistic. Fine, he could be a decent friend, but… he just wasn’t good for a relationship, as Ellie could see it festering in Kara’s head. 

“He and I are the last of our kind. He knew what it was like. He would never leave me.”

“Yeah, okay, but will he treat you well, is what I’m asking!”

“He understands me.”

“Not answering the question, Kara!”

“He says he’ll never leave me.”

Which was why she found herself at the bar she first befriended Lena Luthor.

“Pyromaniac!” Lena called, taking a seat next to her. Ellie was a little tipsy, to the point where she just sat in the smoking area smoking pack after pack of cigarettes and drinking. “I smell self-wallowing and frustration.”

“Thanks, that’s the new label for my smokes,” Ellie snarked back.

“Does this have to do with Kara’s random mood swings of being happy and sad?” Lena asked. “You both got weird at the same time.”

Ellie had to remember at this moment that Pyromaniac was supposed to be off duty and forcibly clenched her jaw as she struggled to light her lighter. God, Kara’s flames were wild and all over the place and unpredictable and it drove Ellie insane. 

“I’ll be damned, the Pyromaniac defeated by a lighter.”

“Shut up,” Ellie hissed, flipping the lighter shut and the unlit cigarette dangled loosely from her lips. Her eyes fluttered shut as she soaked in the environment with her new drinking buddy. “How’d you know I was here?”

“You’re pretty popular,” Lena shrugged. “Whispers were going around that you were either here every night or at the alien dive bar.”

“I should pick up fire breathing, with all the alcohol I drink,” Ellie grumbled, taking another shot. “So what did those whispers do to bring you here? Take a bet on how long you’d last against me in a drinking competition? Cajole, bribe, threaten you to see me? As I recall, usually it’s more of me crashing in and less of you coming in. We’re not… as you say… particularly close.”

“I seem to have bumped into you the first time.”

“That was lucky,” Ellie muttered, discreetly hoping that Kara would be safe rescuing J’onn. She kinda gets that Pyromaniac gets to be put on the backburner (ha, look Kara, she made a pun outside of battle) because this was an alien fight club they were raiding, as well as being on active duty more than 80% of the time and she was burning out (that was a twofer, Alex would groan) to the point where more than half the DEO had petitioned that she take a break.

She picks and chooses her battles. When a kryptonian was staring at you with puppy dog eyes, it was guaranteed a losing battle. But if she gets a call from Winn, she’s leaving.

“You down on Earth?”

“What?”

“Sorry, that was a weird expression,” Lena winced. “You look tense.”

“I am,” Ellie grumbled, cigarette bobbing up and down her lips. “It’s just… ugh… important duty… that sort of shit… I feel like I just got laid off.”

“Forced break?” Lena smirked.

“You have no idea… hey, apparently even Alex- Agent Danvers- takes more vacations than I do, and she’s one hell of a workaholic,” Ellie fumed, then sighed. 

Then- her earpiece buzzed. She perked up, hand flying to her ear as she took in the babble of information that was Vasquez and Winn.

_ “... SUPERGIRL… HURT!” _

“... yeah, I’m gonna have to… y’know… go…” Ellie said awkwardly. “Supergirl got into trouble…”

“Oh, of course.” Lena looked at her with a gaze that Ellie could not decipher, and it weirded Ellie out. “Go on then- and tell Kara hi from me.”

This made Ellie freeze. Did Lena know? But she was taking her motorcycle away and zooming down the street and into the DEO, not wanting to think about it anymore.

“Kara?!” Ellie yelled, bursting through the medbay doors to Alex trying to talk Kara out of going out.

“Kara!” Ellie said, coming to her and putting a hand on her shoulder, feeling the muscle tense under her hands. “Why oh why didn’t you call me for backup?”

“It’s your day off,” Kara protested. “Also because you would have blown our cover.”

“I would not!”

“You would too!”

“Hey!” Alex snapped at them both. “Quit it. Kara, take some time under the sun lamps. Ellie, Kara’s right. Your suit would have blown our cover.”

“Come ON, it’s not like I can superspeed in and out of my suit like Kara,” Ellie complained. “Seriously!”

“... no.”

“That gladiator hit hard…” Kara muttered, hunching over slightly. “Ow.”

“That’s what you get for charging in there, honestly.”

“They bet against me!”

“Of course they would! They hate you,” Ellie rolled her eyes but felt bad when Kara groaned. 

“Feels soooooo bad…”

“At least you now know what indigestion feels like,” Alex muttered.

“Shut up, Alex.”

She felt like Alex and Kara’s relationship had been incredibly rocky lately. Maggie honestly didn’t really like Supergirl that much, and Alex was liking Maggie more and more each day. Mon-El just didn’t sit well with her anymore either. Not after barging in on Alura’s hologram.

After the whole Veronica Sinclair thing, it surprised Ellie as she stepped out with a camera in hand, that Kara was ushering Mon-El out.

“Kara what the hell?”

“We’re going to CatCo!” Kara blurted out, grabbing her hand.

“Kara-” 

“You’re coming with. Period.”

“Why?!” 

But Kara dragged her along, completely busting her chances of avoiding CatCo with Mon-El and Kara together. 

That’s when they first met them.

BZZAPP!

Mon-El leapt into action first, all sloppy fighting styles, but they fling him aside with a blast of the gun. Supergirl appeared, flinging herself at the robbers in her usual reckless way, much to Ellie’s frustration and fear. “K-!”

Maybe it was Ellie’s own frustration at seeing Kara blasted back, Mon-El and James unable to get up, did Ellie be the one to spring into action, lunging for the nearest robber, using her elbow to hit him in the face. He groaned, collapsing back as Ellie wrenched the gun from his hands and opened fire on the robbers.

“Ellie!” Kara shouted, struggling to stand. She could see the blind, desperate fear in her blue eyes as she lunged forward.

Kara lost everything; Ellie had to remind herself sometimes to keep from getting that frustrated at her. It was only natural that Kara would be in a blind panic and throw herself at the robbers again, in a desperate bid to protect her friends and stop losing more people. Kara’s entire life was cemented on loss, grief, fear, hiding. And if Ellie was in her suit and Kara was afraid, how terrified would Kara be if she fought without her suit? 

Now she felt bad.

Kara shot forward, taking the different shots for Ellie as Ellie took a deep breath, aimed…

But didn’t fire.

“NO!” Kara sped over, knocking the gun out of her hands, letting it clatter to the ground. “We don’t kill.”

Kara had knocked the gun out of her hands, stepping up to her, facing her completely, and Ellie could see the same panic setting in in those blue eyes, wide and alarmed. Her breath was heaving, knuckles white.

It was for that moment that they both let their guard down.

The gun fired, sending Kara flying as the robbers made a break for it. Ellie stumbled back from Kara pushing her away, watching the robbers go.

She had never seen Kara like that in the midst of a battle.

Ellie scrambled to her feet, trying to find Kara. She could see the impact marks where Kara had landed as she stumbled towards her. Kara was not moving. Kara was not moving.

Kara was not waking up.

No.

“Kara? Kara wake up. People still need you. We all still need you.” She was internally cursing at the fact that she had no suit again and could not lift Kara to safety. She barely registered James and Mon-El getting up, instead grabbing Kara by the shoulders and shaking her a little more. “Hey, wake up. Wake up. Seriously.”

Internally she was panicking. What had gone wrong? She shouldn’t have fallen from one blast. Did something go wrong? She had healed from the kryptonite explosion completely. Why was Kara not responding? What happened? None of this was good. Kara can’t be dead. No, she couldn’t. Ellie had failed.

“James,” she said blindly, reaching an arm behind her and swatting at James. “Call Alex. Call Alex NOW.”

Everything swam in and out of focus, Mon-El trying to help her, but she couldn’t focus on him- just that Kara, the same alien she looked after and cried and laughed and taught for several years, could be dead. 

She got what she wished for. Ellie thought. But it’s too tragic. _Kara what the fuck-_

“She’s not responding-”

“Fucking call her again!” Ellie yelled, fumbling for Kara’s DEO issued earpiece. Curses, her suit came with the earpiece. She had nothing on her, just a cracked camera lying pathetically on the sidewalk.

Why did Kara leave her back open? Why did she do that? Why did she-? How-? Why?

At the DEO, everything was a blur, a mess. Ellie leaned back against the training room wall, having beaten up the training dummies to a pulp. She knew Kara was alive, that much was obvious.

Lena was calling. Why was Lena calling? Alex was walking in. She texted Lena a ‘maybe later’ before refocusing on Alex. Her shoulders were set, rigid, eyes not meeting Ellie’s.

“Are you mad?” Ellie asked quietly.

Alex didn’t respond directly. “The gun was an alien weapon. We’re tracking them as we speak.”

“Good. I’m burning all of their asses to the ground.” Ellie stood and was about to walk past Alex, figuring Alex would need some space, but Alex stopped her with a hand.

“She’s asking for you.”

_ Of course she would. I almost died today _ . But she was recklessly throwing herself out there and it terrified the shit out of Ellie because Ellie knows, she’s not blind or stupid. Alex may not see it now, may not see it over her own brand of protection, but Kara was hurting. She was still hurting and it was not okay. She was hurting because of Myriad, because of Astra, Non, her parents. Ellie knows because she sees the patterns, sees that Kara never let herself grieve, never did anything to help herself, but just ignored all her trauma, pushing it down.

Kara was so broken.

God, why couldn’t someone else just see that?

“Okay.”

Before she could fully walk past Alex, she suddenly yanked Ellie for a sudden hug. She could feel the way the agent’s shoulders shook with sobs.

“Don’t you dare die on me either, Hunter. You hear me?”

“A-Alex…” Ellie said, startled. Her hands came up to hug her back. “What’s- what’s this about?”

“You scared the shit out of all of us. You and James. You could have disintegrated and we wouldn’t have a body to bury!” Alex paused, sniffing. “I almost lost both of my sisters.”

“You-” Ellie’s mind short circuits. “You consider me a sister?”

Alex gave a short, sad laugh, pulling away. “Yes, you idiot! We practically grew up together. You looked after Kara when I couldn’t. Hell, you looked after me too. I know the concept of family for you is practically nonexistent, but Kara and I really do think of you as a sister. Even Eliza considers you an honorary Danvers, since you were with us for so long.”

“But… I almost got Kara killed… I didn’t… I wasn’t her backup. I didn’t do my job.”

Alex sighed. “You weren’t in your suit. How would you have protected Kara?”

“I would have shot their asses into the floor! I’m not helpless without the suit!” Maybe Ellie was lying a little. Without the suit she was useless and vulnerable.

The older Danvers only looked at the floor a little, averting her gaze. “You are and you know it.”

Ellie walked past Alex, making a beeline for the medbay. Her phone was buzzing over and over with messages from Lena.

She just focused on trying to get to Kara. What was weird was the multiple people looking at her and glancing down. Winn intercepted her and hugged her suddenly.

“I’m so glad you guys are okay.”

“Okay, you guys are acting weird now,” Ellie muttered. “I’m in danger every day, so is Alex. Why don’t you give her a hug?”

“I do,” Winn said, tightening his hug. “You just don’t see it.”

“Winn-”

“Go, go…” Winn waved her off. “Go see Kara.”

Kara was staring at the ceiling as she came in, but she turned to look at Ellie as the agent walked in.

“So… mind telling me why everyone thinks I died or was close to?”

“Ellie… if I wasn’t fast enough you would have been hit.”

“But you-” Ellie wanted to strangle Kara. “-you threw yourself at them!”

“I know but I’m-”

“-invulnerable? Alex may not be here to chew you out for your safety because she doesn’t know, but I sure as hell will!” Ellie gave her a pointed look.”Kara, you’re NOT invulnerable, you never were. Maybe to Earth technologies yes, but this is alien tech. Kara, you didn’t wake up. You scared the shit out of me.”

“I woke up eventually,” Kara defended. “I’m fine!”

Ellie grew frustrated. She was going to stop this song and dance.

“Do you even believe that? Kara, I know you know that you’re not invulnerable. I know that you are not fine. Jesus Christ Kara, you were on the brink of a panic attack in that battle!” Ellie’s voice was climbing higher. “I have watched you suffer, break, cry for many years, a decade plus! I’m tired of this. Kara, you are borderline suicidal.”

“You don’t have a proper diagnosis,” Kara refuted weakly, but she was beginning to close in on herself. “And you threw yourself at the battle too!”

“Believe me, I wouldn’t have if you didn’t become so reckless!” Ellie yelled. Kara’s shoulders hunched over. “You should have just let me fire.”

“They didn’t deserve it.” Kara’s voice was tiny, as she brought her knees up to her chest. “I did.”

“Kara-”

“I had to protect you too.”

“Kara, I’ve killed people.” Ellie could never forget melting flesh, the smell, the way it blackened under heat, the crack of expanding bones. “You can’t protect me from that. I know Alex-”

‘- don’t.”

“What were you protecting me from?”

“... me and the guns.”

“Jesus Christ, Kara,” Ellie sighed. “You are not a danger to me. You never are. I can handle myself just fine with you. We make an amazing team!”

Kata only shook her head, pulling her legs up to her chest like a child. 

“You won’t lose me. Or anyone. Even Mon-El, and he’s… almost invulnerable like you are. Kara, you are not a danger.”

“Everywhere I go something happens!”

“It’s not you,” Ellie said, but it was too late. Kara had jumped off of the sun bed and went away. “Kara, it’s not your fault.”

Ellie then knew that Kara had survivors’ guilt. It seemed obvious now. Last girl of Krypton? Losing people around her so much that it doesn’t feel like a coincidence? Kara was a hero too. There was definitely going to be failures and thoughts of ‘it should be me instead’. But Kara won’t listen to Ellie. And Kara would never tell Alex.

Later that night, Ellie responded to Lena.

Ellie: sorry, got held up

Lena: I noticed.

Ellie: occupational hazard

Ellie: you were calling a lot

Ellie: i didnt miss another assassination attempt did i

Lena: No, of course not! 

Lena: I just couldn’t seem to reach Kara earlier. I wanted to talk to her about something, but I guess I’ll talk to her personally tomorrow.

Lena: But since I’m reaching you now, I thought at first that I should offer you an upgrade to your suit.

Ellie: uhm… i’m up for it but my bosses would find it sketchy

Ellie: they don’t quite trust you yet

Ellie: actually no one really does except a handful of people

Ellie: aka me and supergirl

Ellie: why the sudden kind offer?

Lena: I saw the news.

Ellie: oh no, don’t tell me you’re one of those people who think im helpless without the suit

Lena: … well…

Ellie: im deleting your number

Lena: I just thought you might appreciate activating your suit on the go. You seem to be put in risky situations often.

Ellie: is that all?

Lena: Is Supergirl okay?

Ellie: shes fine

Ellie: why do you ask

Lena: She just looks so…

Lena: Sad?

Ellie squinted at the screen, unable to believe what she was seeing. Someone else sees. It didn’t matter if it was a Luthor, it didn’t matter if she was Kara’s crush and eye candy, it didn’t matter if she didn’t know Kara had dual identities. She cared. Lena fucking cared and was concerned and she SAW that Kara was not okay.

“Then again, she _is_ a Luthor…”

Ellie: i dont know about that

Ellie: maybe you can ask her

Lena: I’m a Luthor, she’ll never tell me.

Ellie: she knows youre more than your last name

Ellie: she has faith in you

Lena: Do you know about this?

Ellie: shell never listen to me

Lena: I doubt she’ll listen to me either.

_ Oh, but she will. Because she’s Kara. _

Ellie: youre lena fucking luthor. If anyone can make supergirl go for therapy it would be you

Lena: I know you mean well but what that sentence also means is that I can traumatize her for life as well.

Ellie: believe me, if you wanted to you would have done it already

Ellie: you are not your last name

Ellie: period

Lena: We’ll see what the public thinks about that.

Lena had some serious issues too. Both Luthor and Super were obnoxiously… stubborn. But maybe a fresh perspective could bring Kara to her senses. Maybe. Ellie didn’t know yet. Maybe Kara could bring something to Lena too.

They were both good eggs in a bad world. She could see Kara’s flames now, wavering and weak, barely holding on, masked behind sunny smiles, pastel colours, a red cape and powers.

And then there was Lena’s flames. Small, flickering but still ferociously fighting- still in danger of being extinguished. It was masked behind CEO looks, sharp words, a critical mind, offices and desks, wines and whiskeys. 

It wouldn’t hurt to give them both a nudge now, would it?

The following day had her wandering into CatCo with a fresh batch of photographs, some compulsory reports in hand. Cat Grant had gone now, after Kara became a journalist. It made Ellie quite upset too- she liked the media mogul. And the fact that she knew Supergirl’s secret was the icing on the cake. James was by no means a bad boss, Cat was just way more superior.

Her boots made silent thuds on the floors as she walked in, trying to find Kara as well. They needed to finish their conversation and they needed to finish it now. Even if Lena was going to talk to her, she would still try from her end.

“Kara-“

She was interrupted by Kara scolding Mon-El. Ellie watched the younger Danvers amusedly as she berated Mon-El for not pulling his load. She looked like a sister.

Sister. She smiled at the word. She had a family now.

_ Sister.  _

She quite liked the sound of that.

With a huff, Kara turned around- only for her to stop and stare in shock at something right behind Ellie. 

She didn’t even realize the entire bullpen had fallen silent.

“Kara- what’s-“ Ellie turned around to look at whatever it is that had Kara so shocked and flabbergasted by, only to be met with green eyes and a wide smirk.

“Boo.”

With a loud scream, Ellie jumped three feet into the air and back, having not expected Lena to appear behind her. She stumbled over a trash bin, her arms windmilling wildly as she tried to regain balance, and toppled into Eve, who was carrying back Mon-El’s reports and paperwork.

Mon-El was killing himself laughing. Kara was too busy helping Eve pick up the papers. Lena looked sheepish and embarrassed.

“I’m- I’m just going to go-“

“NO! No, I mean- uh… no, no. Sorry, we just weren’t- uh expecting you,” Kara said nervously, trying to not look too excited as she almost dropped the papers on the floor again. “What brings you to the den of lions?”

“One lion is going to melt your face off Lena!” Ellie jokingly fumed from the floor, taking over helping Eve.

“Ignore her, she’s a big scaredy cat.” Kara giggled at the way Ellie muttered a bunch of fire-related threats aimed at her, raging from ‘I will put you in fire’ to ‘Kara I’m fucking burning down Noonan’s’.

Lena laughed a little. “I came to see you, actually.”

“Oh?” Ellie now could feel the hope radiating off of Kara. “What for?”

“I was wondering if you could come with me? To a gala I’m organizing, I mean. It’s a gala fundraiser for the children’s hospital after that horrific attack on their new building…” Lena folded her arms.

She also gave Ellie a little side glance that meant to be ‘you better come too even though I’m kinda not directly asking you’. To which Ellie responded with a roll of her eyes. 

“Yeah… y-yeah! Of co-“ Before Kara could finish her sentence, Mon-El was butting in suddenly.

“Ooh, a gala? Is that some sort of party?” 

“Butt out, Mike,” Ellie grumbled, waving off Eve with a tight smile and getting up from the floor.

“N-no-! It’s not,” Kara said quickly, stopping Mon-El from speaking any further.

“Crinkle,” Ellie muttered lowly, to which Kara turned offendedly towards her.

“I do not have a crinkle!”

Lena turned to look at Ellie, who was rolling her eyes at Mon-El. She bit her lip, hiding a smile as Kara frowned and hissed at Ellie, who was serenely grinning like she had heard it all before. Which she had. Many times.

Lena cleared her throat to get Kara’s attention again.

“You are literally my only friend in National City,” Lena said, and this time it was Ellie turning to Lena offendedly, complete with a Kara-esque mock offense gasp.

“Lena Luthor! How rude?! What am I, chopped liver?”

“You’re a human. You’re not chopped in any way,” Mon-El butts in, and Ellie resisted the urge to kick him in the nuts except that it would probably break her foot instead of hurt him.

Still, maybe she could stab him with a pencil and play it off as… _‘oops he walked into it’._

“Kara was here first,” Lena laughed. “To be honest, I’m surprised with you both. Most people wouldn’t even put a Luthor within a ten foot pole…” She looked meaningfully at them both, but particularly at Kara with an accompanying lip bite. “It would mean a lot to me if you were there.”

“Of course, I’d be honored to come,” Kara smiled, truly and genuinely, and it made Ellie freeze in shock.

She had not seen that smile in years. It used to be just Alex and her to pull that smile out of her, although it had taken them both a long ass time to be able to. But now, she was seeing Lena Luthor, inviting Kara to a gala fundraiser, pulling that smile out of Kara so effortlessly that Ellie had to gape at them both. 

_ Lena Luthor, are you flirting with my charge?! _

They broke eye contact, and Kara looked at the floor with a small smile on her face that Ellie recognized as her ‘I have a crush’ smile.

“I love parties,” Mon-El cut in quickly. “Could I come too?”

“No.” Both Kara and Ellie cut in immediately. 

Lena just looked so happy that Kara was coming, but she tilted her head at Mon-El, apparently just now realizing his presence. “Of course your friend can come. What’s your name?”

“Mike,” Mon-El said quickly. “... of the interns.”

Ellie let out a snort that she couldn’t suppress in time, causing all three of them to turn to her. Lena’s confused look and Kara’s forced smile look when Mon-El said something and wide eyes begging Ellie not to fuck up their identities made her giggle. When Mon-El turned to her with that complete utter confident look that said that he thought that he had positively, absolutely said the right thing, she began to laugh- loud.

She laughed like a maniac. A pyromaniac.

“Well… Mike… of the interns…” Lena’s voice had more of a confused quality to it, as well as a cloying sweetness. “Find yourself a nice suit and I’ll see you there.” She then turned to Ellie. “I trust that you’ll find yourself there as well?”

“A personal invite from Miss Luthor? How kind,” Ellie deadpanned as she sobered up from laughing so hard. “I’ll be there. What kind of suit would you have me in?”

“Please be in something you can dance in,” Lena smiled, though her eyes conveyed another message. “Oh, and have you thought about my offer yet?”

“About the suit? Making it more mobile?” Ellie sighed. “I’m fine as it is. I can handle myself without it just fine.”

Now Kara, Mon-El and Lena looked uncomfortable, though Kara looked surprised that Lena extended her offer in the first place. Then again, Ellie was also Lena’s friend, albeit a very weird one. Ellie just had a tendency to crash into people’s lives, considering the amount of times she had to initiate interactions between her and Kara and even between her and Alex when they first met. While Kara melded in naturally with Lena, Ellie had crash-landed on Lena. But the CEO didn’t seem to mind, accepting the friendship with ease… after Kara managed to break down her walls first.

Man, Ellie was a magnet for emotionally stunted people. Case in point Alex ‘Badass’ Danvers.

Case two, Kara ‘Supergirl’ Danvers.

And now, case three. Lena ‘Everybody Hates Me’ Luthor.

Lena seemed to get the hint, nodding at Ellie before addressing all three. “I’ll see you all there.”

With that, she turned and left.

“We… are going to a party!” Mon-El cheered, and Kara huffed and snatched the red vine from his hand as Ellie mentally went through a checklist of clothes she had, trying to find one that was suitable for a Luthor charity fundraiser gala, as well as many different ways to kill a Daxamite and hide the body.

It was still tempting to stab him with a pencil though.

At this moment, they both get a call.

“There’s an attack,” Kara said lowly.

“We gotta go,” Ellie said, but Kara stopped her with a hand. “Dude, what?”

“I go. Not you.”

“Dude, you’re fucking with me- I’m your backup!” Ellie said, more in shock.

“No.”

With that, Kara goes away, leaving Ellie with Mon-El, waving her hands in exasperation.

“Kara Danvers!”

Mon-El waved her off. “I got this.”

“You better.”

By the time she arrived at the scene of the crime, she found Alex and Maggie over there, with cars thrown into everywhere.

“What’s going on?” Ellie asked, landing with a light thump. “Where’s Kara?”

“Kara’s checking on the police officer that was launched into the near atmosphere,” Alex said. “They had an anti-gravity gun.”

“Jeez louise, they just get bolder and bolder with the alien tech.” Ellie paused, looking between her and Maggie. “We came a little too late?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Kara landed with a huff next to Ellie. “You shouldn’t have come.”

“My ass.”

“Someone could have gotten into trouble.”

“So now I’m stuck babysitting the one who’s a literal man child?” Ellie scoffed, folding her arms, letting the suit clink.

Alex snickered. 

“He’s not a man child, he’s-“ Kara just sighed and stopped herself. “You know what? I’m just gonna- just gonna go.”

“Supergirl you can’t just ditch backup,” Ellie protested. “At least if I’m not with you, at least let Agent Danvers be there.”

“No. I’ll be fine.”

Ellie wanted to punch Kara in the face, but she just sighed. “This conversation is not over. Just- just take me back to the DEO so that we can go back to work.”

Kara and Ellie were both fuming, Ellie practically dumping her documents on the respective desks that needed it as they came back.

More people want to repeal the alien amnesty. Damn the fucking Cadmus. Damn them all!

And to make matters worse, Mon-El was nowhere to be seen. Nowhere to be seen for two hours apparently.

“Ugh God! Get it out of my ears! Ew!” Kara pulled a face, as if trying to plug whatever was coming into it.

“Whoa what the hell?” Ellie asked, anger and irritation turning to concern as she followed Kara as she ran in a direction. “Dude are your glasses not working?”

“Rao, they’re having sex!” Kara almost shouted, hurrying down a hallway and before Ellie could protest, yanking a door open.

Ellie could hear Eve’s gasp, and Kara stumbling back, looking mortified.

“What are you two doing?” Kara asked.

“I think the correct question is, “what the fuck are you two doing?’ Emphasis on the ‘ _fuck_ ’, Kara,” Ellie said, trying to make the situation light. And it would be light, if she and Kara weren’t so horrified that Mon-El could potentially kill Eve in mid-sex.

Kara just turned to Ellie with the same expression before just swatting at them.

“No, no, no- I shouldn’t ask that- this is the definition of what it looks like- just whatever it is, stop it.”

Eve muttered an apology and slipped out, Mon-El casually saying something about how easy it was to have power on this planet. Ellie wanted to bash him over the head.

She hung back as they both argued, again. Mon-El may be a prat, but Kara’s way might not be the best way for everybody. Ellie had no idea how to break that to Kara, especially after Kara stalked off, and Mon-El sighed dejectedly.

God, Kara was just stubborn.

Kara’s irritation towards Ellie had waned, and the way home was peppered with ranting. Heavy ranting.

“We’re having a sister night,” Kara declared, but upon seeing Alex in the hallway, they both sighed. “You are an honorary Danvers. You must come.”

“Kara- Eliza didn’t even adopt me.”

“She practically did! And she said to call her mom now.”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, looking at both of them. 

“Why are you eating fried sugar? Isn’t that Kara’s thing?” Ellie asked as they all came in, Kara speeding over repetitively to get them all beers as Kara recounted the same rant she said to Ellie.

Ellie took a swig of beer, relishing the taste as Alex shifted a little and said what she wanted to say to Kara with Mon-El earlier but couldn’t.

“Kara… Ellie... I think I’m-“

Ellie had always had a hunch that Alex was gay. She had an impeccable gaydar. Kara was openly pansexual, ever since she was a teen. Gender didn’t matter on Krypton, Kara had said once. She herself was pansexual too, having had crushes on many different people. Girls, boys, trans, non binary…

Her only serious relationship was Rick Malverne, and he was suddenly reaching out again. At that point her phone buzzed with a message from Rick, prompting her to look at it with curiosity, and then-

Knock knock.

Kara lowered her glasses, giving the door a once over. “Why is she here?” 

“Why is who here?” Ellie asked, clinking bottles with Alex.

“Lena.”

“Lena-!” Ellie spat out her drink as Kara opened the door and Lena walked right in, pausing in her tracks as she saw Alex.

“Agent Hunter,” she greeted Ellie, who raised a bottle. “I tried to knock but you weren’t in.”

“Kara’s fault,” Ellie shrugged. 

“You saved my life,” Lena smiled. 

“Yeah, Special Agent Alex Danvers. FBI.”

Turns out Lena was there for a favour, needing to get in touch with Supergirl. Of course, Kara agrees, making Ellie silently lose her mind behind the Luthor, gagging intensely. She turned to Ellie as well. “I also need Pyromaniac there.”

“Why?” Both Ellie and Alex asked.

“It’s for the party. The safety of the party.”

“Aw shucks, I thought I’d be off duty for one night,” Ellie grumbled.

“Seriously? Now you complain of not having a vacation when everyone forced you to take a day off?”

“Yeah, but Alex, it’s a partyyyyyy.”

“Find a way to make your suit more mobile and maybe I’ll talk the director into giving you a day off,” Alex challenged.

“I can help you with that,” Lena said.

“I’m fine, Lena, Alex. Fine, I guess I’ll show up in my suit.”

“Let Lena help you…” Kara said, but somehow Ellie’s frustration with Kara rose to a boiling point.

“I’ll let Lena help me if you would see a therapist!” Ellie snapped. “You keep hiding and hiding and ignoring and throwing yourself into work so much that you could die from it but you’re not okay! You’re not okay and you launched into a panic attack just because I was out there without a suit! You had a meltdown, Kara! You’re not okay! And I just wish you could get some help because I don’t know how long we can keep you safe for!”

Utter silence. Kara stared at Ellie with shock, surprise and fear. The truth was, it had been building in Ellie since the kryptonite explosion. Kara had to see a professional. She wasn’t sure if she or Alex could handle Kara anymore.

Alex’s head snapped back to Kara, looking hurt. “Ka-”

“Get out.”

All three of them jolted back. Kara was shaking, clearly from anger, fear, something else. “Get out.”

“Kara-” Alex said, but Kara stared at her sister with tears in her eyes.

“Get. Out. Alex please.”

“Kara, no. I’m not leaving,” Alex said, trying to step forward, but she abruptly pushed forward to the door then.

“If you’re all not leaving, then I’m leaving.”

“Kara-” Lena said, trying to reach for her hand, but deciding against it, watching Kara leave.

“What the hell? You didn’t tell me?” Alex snapped, rounding on Ellie.

“I need to go.”

“No way, you’re not fucking leaving.” Alex blocked the door. “You didn’t tell me.”

“It wasn’t my place to fucking say, Alex! She had to be the one to tell you.” Ellie stared at the ceiling, trying to hold tears back. 

“I’m her sister! I have the right to know!”

“WHAT KIND OF SISTER DOESN’T SEE THAT SHE’S HURTING?”

Lena stared at the floor, before looking up. “Can I offer my two cents? Fighting won’t do anything to help Kara. More than anything, she needs you now that the truth is out.” Lena fumbled in her bag for something, before holding out a white calling card with slightly shaking hands.

“What’s that?” Alex asked.

“My therapist’s number. I… also have a number of issues and I’ve found that therapy helps me. Of course, it works differently for everybody.” Lena’s voice was shaking, as if scared to divulge even this small bit of information. “If you need a therapist, you can call that number. It’s not a one therapist fits all solution, but it will give you a starting point.” Lena fidgeted with her hands, looking away from the both of them. 

To Ellie’s surprise, Alex accepted the card. “Thank you, Miss Luthor.”

Lena gave a faint smile. “Just call me Lena.”

Later that night, both Supergirl and Pyromaniac landed on Lena’s balcony.

Kara’s eyes were red, like she had been crying for a long time. She kept her hands moving, nervous, afraid. Ellie had yet to speak anything to Kara, but clearly Kara was waiting for the other shoe to drop. They both had to act their normal selves in front of Lena, but it was hard when Kara paused sometimes to sniffle, her shaking hands, red eyes and unruly hair.

“You summoned me?” Supergirl tried, but her voice was wobbly and thick.

Ellie looked away, daring not to unpolarize her helmet or open it or in any way shape or form for fear that Lena would see the tension between Ellie’s brows.

“Supergirl! Pyromaniac,” she greeted, though she was caught off guard by Kara’s appearance, no doubt. “I believe Pyromaniac has told you that I’m having a party?”

“Yes- yes! Of course.” 

“Supergirl, are you okay? Ellie, you can take off your helmet, I know who you are.”

“I’m… I’m fine Lena.”

“Clearly not.”

To be honest, Ellie herself had been crying. She had been thinking of ways to broach the subjects to Kara so as to not damage their relationship, and she just had to do just that. She was scared that Kara would go beyond the point of no return.

(Later on, she’ll realize. Alex would always be the driving force for Supergirl. Lena would always be the driving force for Kara Danvers. Ellie would be the balancer.)

She had Winn install a voice changer for times like these, as well as to annoy criminals. But apparently Lena could see right through her.

“So… Miss Luthor…”

“Lena.”

“Lena, right.” Kara wouldn’t meet her eyes. “What does the party have to do with anything?”

“I need you to come to the party.”

“What…? But I’m a walking target, and you’re a walking target and-”

“That’s why she’s asking you, numbskull,” Ellie gritted out. “You’re gonna help her protect it.”

“I- I don’t know…” Ellie could see the insecurity in Kara’s eyes. “I mean, the party is a bad enough idea, but to have Supergirl there?”

“I have to take risks to help others,” Lena said. “Surely you of all people know that. Is it so hard to believe that I want that too?”

Kara averted her gaze. “It’s not. I- I just don’t know if…”

“With you and Ellie there, everyone will be safe,” Lena assured. “I trust you both to protect me and my guests.”

Kara met Lena’s gaze and sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there.”

In moments like these, it was easy to see that Kara was human-like. As Kara left, Lena called Ellie over.

“Is Kara okay? Are you okay?”

“She’s… I don’t know. I have yet to talk to her. She needs to cool down first,” Ellie sighed. “I’m good.”

“The truth. You’re hiding your face the whole time. I’m guessing you didn’t want anybody to see?”

Ellie winced. “Yes.”

Lena looked away. “You and Supergirl are in bad shape. Did something happen?”

Ellie opened her mouth to reply, but her helmet buzzed with an emergency. “I’m sorry, but I really have to go.”

“See you at the party.”

The party was… awkward business. Ellie arrived before Kara, much to Lena’s confusion. 

(“I thought you would arrive together with Supergirl.”

“Stuff came up.”)

They were in the middle of talking about black body field generators and their practical uses when Kara and Winn arrived. Many guests came to gape at the agent, who just ignored all of them.

“Lena!”

With Lena, Kara’s flames were brighter, just a little. Lena’s flames grew way more brighter when Kara was around. 

Still, she awkwardly excused herself when Kara said that she would talk to Lena for a moment. Well tried to.

“No, Ellie, you can stay,” Lena smiled, and Ellie flushed bright red under her helmet.

“I- I feel like this is a private conversation…”

“You can stay,” Kara said, and Ellie just unpolarized her helmet to look properly at Kara.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“OH! I’m so sorry!” Winn yelped, ‘accidentally’ spilling wine on Lena, forcing Kara to step away and reappear as Supergirl.

“Supergirl!” Lena shouted, in happiness.

“I still think it’s a bad idea…” Kara said, placing a surprising arm around Ellie, who yelped at the contact. “But I’ll scout the perimeter. At the first sign of danger, I’ll come right back. Pyromaniac here can stay on base.”

Ellie turned her head to narrow her eyes at Kara, who relented easily. “... I won’t be too far away. Promise.”

“You better.”

With that, Kara flew away, with Lena looking up, only for Kara to quickly speed over in her dress.

“Oh, Kara! You just missed Supergirl!” 

“Did I? Golly!”

Ellie laughed, a laugh that was genuine. “Kara, golly is such an outdated word.”

“No it’s not!” Kara argued back, cheeks flaming.

But she was smiling genuinely, something that Ellie was beginning to notice came more often. Ever since Lena Luthor, Kara had been smiling a lot more. She was happier around the Luthor.

They looked at each other and gave each other brilliant beams that Ellie felt like she was intruding on a private moment.

She joined Lena later when Kara drifted to the potstickers.

“I expected Mike of the Interns to show up. So, where is he?”

“No idea.” 

Lena hesitated, about to ask something of Ellie. 

“You can ask me whatever, Lena. No judgement here,” Ellie grinned, swirling a glass of wine in her hand.

“Do you think… I can ask Kara to dance?” Lena asked.

“Oooh… you LIKE her!”

“N-no! No!” Lena stuttered.

“Gay panic?”

“Like you’ve ever had one!”

“Been there, done that.” Ellie inspected the wine. “Pretty good stuff here. Shame I can’t drink.”

“Well, I can. I honestly think I need a lot more than liquid courage to do this momentous task,” Lena rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure you can! Go now, she’s raiding the potsticker section- that was totally your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Maybe?” Lena blushed. Ellie laughed, setting down the glass.

“If you can ask her to dance, maybe I’ll let you upgrade my suit,” Ellie teased, and in response, Lena knocked back the entire glass.

“Okay, I’m gonna do it.”

“You go, girl!” Ellie raised her glass to Lena, but both of their smiles faded when they saw Mon-El talking to Kara. “... oh.”

“It was probably an impossibility anyways,” Lena laughed, but Ellie heard the disappointment in her voice. 

“You can still ask her,” she pointed out, but it faltered when Mon-El took Kara’s hands and led her out to the dance floor. “Oh.”

“She looks like she’s having fun,” Lena said sourly.

“You have a crush on her,” Ellie repeated, more serious now.

“She’s probably straight. Oh well. Only time can tell,” Lena dismissed, making Ellie frown. 

In front of them were James and Winn, watching Kara and Mon-El dance.

“She wasn’t into either of us, I don’t think she’ll be into this guy, right?” Winn asked.

“Impossible,” James agreed.

Lena raised her eyebrows at the conversation, looking at Ellie for confirmation.

“Can confirm, both of them have tried to date her with epic nopes,” Ellie sighed, this time retracting her helmet and drinking her wine.

“What happened to no drinking on duty?” Lena asked.

“If I want to survive this night, I think I need it,” Ellie grumbled. 

Winn’s device beeped madly, and explosions began to happen around them. Ellie’s helmet locked back into place, visor polarizing and hiding the rest of her face.

“Get behind me,” Ellie said, getting into a battle stance, but Lena pushed past, confronting the robbers. Ellie internally screeched, pushing past people and catching up to Lena.

_ Oh my God, Lena you’re just as bad as Kara! _

“I see you brought the Pyromaniac. We were counting on it…” The lead robber, Chet Miner, raised his gun. Ellie’s wrist flamethrower was quick to engage, searing and burning the men.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t be here?” Kara yelled, as Ellie used her jetpack to evade a man.

“You too!” Chet aimed his huge gun at her, countering her heat vision, but blasting her back. 

“Supergirl!” Flames erupted from her wrist flamethrowers as she evaded getting hit by guns. “I’ll take the ground, you take the air!”

The flames spurted in as Ellie ran, dodging the blasts of guns as much as she could, spotting James get knocked down by Chet. 

“We almost got them,” Kara said into her earpiece.

“You sure about that?” Ellie asked, pulling out her katanas from her back, swinging them at the men. 

“Positive.”

With Kara’s heat vision and Ellie’s flames and katanas, they began to corner the robbers. 

“We almost did it!”

“Surprise, pyro bitch!”

A heavy blast sounded, and Ellie felt like she was hit by a searing truck as she was sent skidding across the floor. Kara was shouting, James was trying to fight Chet. It felt like a white hot brand was being driven into her front as another gun blast seared through her left shoulder, forcing her to drop her katanas. She was practically screaming in her helmet, the voice modulator broken as her screams were more of a strangled cry.

Even after Chet finished firing, the guns left smoldering metal in their wake, pressing against Ellie’s chest as warnings flashed in her helmet.

_ Warning, critical systems failure. _

_ Warning, temperature regulations system failure. _

_ Warning, jetpack systems failure. _

_ Warning, weapons systems failure. _

_ Warning, critical damage to front torso.  _

_ Warning, rebreather malfunction. _

_ Warning, armor breach. _

She could smell the smoke, the soot, as the pain intensified and she groaned, trying to get up and off of the floor. It was so hot, she couldn’t breathe, it felt like she was drowning in heat.

Was this what hell felt like?

_ Warning, excessive damage will cause complete systems malfunction. _

The suit couldn’t take another hit.

Ellie’s helmet retracted to give her even a bit of fresh air and she choked at the soot.

“You okay?”

“No,” Ellie reached a shaking hand to her utility belt and aiming the gun at Chet as his gun charged up.

“Say night night, Pyromaniac!”

Kara had intercepted the blast, flying backwards and knocking into Ellie and James, knocking Ellie out for the count as her helmetless head bashed against the floor with the impact.

Ellie woke up in the DEO, with bandages wrapped around her middle and her left shoulder and she groaned.

“Ow…”

To her surprise, Alex was by her side. 

“Hey, Pyromaniac.”

“Mmh…? Alex? What…?” She felt pain as she moved, quickly deciding that this was not the best idea at all.

“You did a good job,” Alex said, looking down and shifting. “Lena and Winn defeated them by using a black body generator. Apparently something that you said helped them complete it. The gala was a trap.”

“Oh, I’m not surprised. Why am I not surprised, Alex?” Ellie asked.

“Well, she wanted to help.”

“I never doubted that for a moment.”

Alex looked down a little, then back at Ellie, eyes softer. “I spoke to Kara.”

“Oh?”

“I think… we all need to have this conversation. This… running away.” She paused. “You were right. I didn’t notice her hurting. She was always so reckless and I thought it was in her nature, until I realized that it wasn’t normal.”

“I just want Kara to get better. It never went away, Alex.”

“I realized.” Alex pursed her lips. “We’ll wait for Kara to get here and then we’ll keep talking.”

Kara never showed that evening, and Ellie was confined to the DEO a little bit longer. With the help of Winn, she was trying to upgrade her suit to let it resist alien weapons.

And for more mobility, she begrudgingly agrees, but neither she nor Winn have a way to make it accessible for her at any time.

The following times she or Alex try to bring it up again, Kara was dodging left and right. Of course, they all spent time together, but Kara was very good at dodging talks about her mental health.

Kara was good at looking so open, but also being so closed off, which was probably why no one could guess that she was so broken inside. Heck, even she got fooled until she looked closer at Kara’s behavior. It was ridiculous what a smile can hide. 

“You don’t have a job?” Kara sighed to Mon-El as Ellie leaned her head on her hand, watching them interact. It was Happy Hour at the dive bar, and Mon-El, Kara and Ellie were just having some downtime from their jobs, Ellie being forcibly dragged into the action by Kara.

“I’ve been working odds and ends…” Mon-El said.

“Nah… I doubt it,” Ellie slurred as M’gann set down two glasses of Alderbaan rum in front of them and one vodka.

“Did we order this? Mon-El, did you order this?” Kara asked.

“No, it was Giggles, across the bar,” M’gann smirked, pointing out a blue alien that reminded Ellie of Star Wars. “Enjoy.”

Ellie reached for the vodka, clearly marked so that she won’t grab the alien alcohol by mistake and die.

“You still need to control your powers,” Kara said.

Of course, this whole interaction would result in Kara being drunk. Who would have thought?

“... are you slurring?” Alex asked as Mon-El went off to get more drinks.

“You look like… my sister.”

“No, I’m Ellie.” Both of them started giggling at their jokes, high fiving as if it was the funniest joke in the world.

“Well I’ll be damned… Kara Danvers drunk,” Alex sighed exasperatedly. 

“Hey! What about me?” Ellie pouted.

“And Ellie Hunter-Danvers.”

“Ew! That sounds like I’m married to you. Or Kara. Or someone. I think you’re gay. I dunno. I’m right or wrong? God my gaydar goes off at really weird times… hey Kara, what time is it now?”

“It’s… uh… chooooo-coooooo-laaaaa-te…” Kara said, trying to pronounce chocolate.

“Okay, you’re both drunk. I’m taking you both home. Kara, you’re not in any position to fly.”

“Obviously!” Kara said, giving an overexaggerated shrug, sticking her tongue out at Alex. “My tongueth feelsth weirdth.”

“Really? Mine doesn’t.”

“Okay… I think you both have enough alcohol…” Alex said, ears turning pink at hearing Ellie say that she thought Alex was gay.

“No!” Kara giggled, and Alex sighed.

“J’onn, help me out here.”

There were times where Alex and Ellie really envied the fact that Kara barely got hangovers, which sucked. 

So it came as no surprise as Ellie was wearing sunglasses and looking through spam messages from Rick that Mon-El broke through the wall due to Kara launching him through.

“Fucking hell, keep it down…” she yelled, even though it made her head throb. Rick was being less sweet and more annoying with consistent messages. Lena was messaging and amusing Ellie with memes. Apparently the Luthor was quite up to date with the memes.

“Sorry!” Kara called back, coming in and sitting next to Ellie. “Bad hangover?”

“I have met my limit, I swear,” Ellie muttered, switching off her phone and leaning back in her chair, taking a moment to look at Kara, who was barely sweaty. “Is Mon-El too easy for you?”

“He’s not taking this seriously.”

“I can imagine,” Ellie deadpanned, staring at her suit, which was nearing completion, but was still not mobile. “Kara, about you-“

“Oh Rao, not again,” Kara groaned.

“Well maybe if you stop running away from Alex and I when I bring it up, maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation- ow… shit…” Ellie rubbed at her temples with her right hand. “Son of a bitch.”

“Or maybe we shouldn’t be having this conversation now because you’re still in the midst of a hangover,” Kara said, getting up.

Ellie pointed an accusing finger at Kara. “You’re running away again.”

“I’m not running away!”

“Crinkle.”

“I don’t have a crinkle!” 

“Kara?” Alex asked, coming in, totally ignoring the damage to the wall. “Can I talk to you? Alone?”

She stayed the whole day in the labs. If you asked her, she wouldn’t have known Dr. Jones was the Parasite until Kara came back for the Medbay. Ellie had not been asked to take point on the case, instead tasked with upgrading equipment for all agents before going back on the field as Pyromaniac.

It also gave her a chance to give Lena a visit the normal way, though she had to sit with Jess the secretary for a bit and she kind of sulked about that.

“You and Miss Danvers?” Jess asked.

“No, Kara’s like my sister.” 

Kara had a good support system. Did they do something wrong? Why couldn’t Kara help herself? What was missing? What was wrong? Kara couldn’t help herself. They had to convince her to. But how?

“Miss Luthor can see you now.”

“God, Jess, you make her sound like a doctor,” Ellie chuckled, putting a coffee on Jess’s desk. “I know how much you like your coffee too, so… here you go.”

“You and Miss Danvers are godsends,” Jess smiled, then paused. “Tell Miss Danvers that Miss Luthor misses her lunchtimes on the days she doesn’t visit.”

“Noted. Kara’s going to kill Lena for not eating,” Ellie laughed, then opened the door to Lena’s office, then froze when she saw who was in the room. “Rick?”

“I’m sorry, have you two met?” Lena was annoyed with the man in front of her.

“Yeah- yeah… he was… my ex.” She blinked at him. “Ex that recently reappeared in my life…”

“Ellie!” Rick gave her a sudden hug. It was bone crushingly tight as she gasped.

“Rick- can’t breathe…”

“Sorry… so you know Lena Luthor?” Rick asked, gesturing to Lena as he pulled back.

“... does the fact that I’m standing in her office clue you off to that?” Ellie deadpanned.

“It’s just… it’s good to see you again!” Rick smiled, squeezing her left shoulder hard, which now had a permanent scar and sometimes the muscles still throbbed. It throbbed now. “We should catch up.”

“We always do… on the phone.”

“I meant in person! You gotta tell me where you work! Thank you Miss Luthor for having me, and see you soon!”

“He’s…” Lena couldn’t find a word.

“... rambunctious,” Ellie finished, rubbing at her shoulder. “He really squeezed it hard.”

“I have some muscle cream in the first aid box,” Lena stood, about to walk to the bathroom there.

“N-no… I’m good. Just the laser gun injury. Still hurts a little. It really tore my shoulder open.”

“I know,” Lena winced, thinking about it. “You just here for a visit?”

Ellie raised her hands. “Okay. I give in. You win. You get to upgrade my suit.”

Lena did a small fist pump. “Yes! And what changed your mind?”

“Supergirl throwing a guy through the wall this morning,” Ellie admitted. “Into my lab.”

“You have your own lab?” Lena asked.

“Don’t act like you don’t have your own, Lena,” Ellie teased, and they both laughed good naturedly.

They chatted a little about everything, from Rick Malverne to the suit… 

And then it changed to Kara.

“How’s Kara?” Lena asked. 

Ellie blew out a breath. “I don’t know.” 

Truthfully, she didn’t. Not when Kara was playing dodgeball with every single attempt Alex and her made to try to get her to think about therapy. Kara’s reckless behaviors had come to a standstill, which Ellie found was good, but-

“She won’t talk to us. Any of us,” Ellie mused, before deflating entirely. “I was kinda hoping you could talk some sense into her. Did she tell you anything?”

Lena laughed, but it sounded sad, as she looked down and played with her fingers. “After your little outburst that day Kara apologized to me, and explained some things. A little context… but I’m not sure if I’m the best person.”

“Kara has never really willingly admitted her hurts and fears freely to me or Alex,” Ellie said. “Not unless something happened. You’re really special for her to open up to you fast.”

“Well, it’s just my charm,” Lena joked and the atmosphere lightened as they reached a comfortable lull.

“Shall we work on the suit? I really want to get back on the field.”

“Sure.”

Working with Lena as professionals made Ellie extremely happy. Eventually they worked out a system that the suit would practically fly to wherever Ellie was, based on a watch that Ellie wore. It would also have a GPS tracking device showing where the suit was at all times as well as the call suit button.

Of course, there were a couple of times that Ellie was nearly decapitated due to the suit flying too close with extended wrist blades or Lena diving to the side as the suit mowed through everything in the lab just to get to Ellie. 

Frustrated, Ellie returned to the DEO at the distress call, worrying over Alex and Kara.

“Whoa, what happened to your pistol?” Ellie asked as Alex sighed and patted the empty holster.

“Crushed in the hands of an alien parasite on a man,” Alex huffed, as Kara kept insisting she was fine.

“Looks like Pam is going to have to get you to sign papers again,” Ellie laughed.

“I’m secretly convinced she hates me because of the paperwork I give her.” 

“C’mon, let’s go check on Kara,” Ellie smiled, patting Alex on the shoulder. “You’re okay right?”

“Yeah.” Alex looked deep in thought. “Hey, can I tell you something?”

“Hm?” Ellie hummed, grabbing her phone and shooting Lena a message. She got a message from Rick in response, which she pointedly ignored.

“I think… what you said… when you were drunk…” Alex fidgeted a little. “I think I’m… I think… I… I have feelings for Maggie.”

Ellie hardly blinked. “You can say you’re gay, Alex.”

“I… what if it’s just a phase?” Alex whispered, causing Ellie to stiffen. 

“Alexandra Danvers. In your heart of hearts, do you truly believe that?” Ellie asked, patiently looking at Alex. “Or is that you being in denial?”

“I don’t know… just that Kara was acting weird about it and I’m not sure… and I got nervous speaking to you…”

“Alex, I’m pansexual.”

“You’re what?!” Alex shouted. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not that I’m ashamed or anything. You just never asked,” Ellie smirked, then sighed. “But you know, I lived in denial for a long time… until I could stand in front of a mirror and say, “I am pansexual. I like girls. I like boys. I like transgender people. I like non binary people. I have romantic feelings for people who are beyond the gender spectrum and the same gender as me.” That was how I fully accepted myself. Alex, if I were to reject you I’d be a hypocrite.”

“You’re saying I need to stand in front of a mirror… and say that?” Alex asked.

“No. You need to stand in front of yourself and say it, and believe it.” Ellie patted Alex on the shoulder. “Say it with me, “I am Alex Danvers, and I am gay. I like girls as more than friends.” Now you try.”

“I am Alex Danvers… and I am gay. I like girls as more than friends. This seems too easy.”

“No, no, no. Say it again. Say it like you mean it. Say it like you’re proud of it. C’mon.” Ellie elbowed Alex to a mirror. “Look at yourself in the eye and repeat it.

“I am Alex Danvers, and I am gay. I like girls as more than friends,” Alex said, saying it a bit faster, but still looking down.

“Louder! Say it like you own it!” Ellie smiled.

“I am Alex Danvers and I am gay! I like girls as more than friends!” Alex said, finally looking herself in the mirror.

“One more time!” 

“I AM ALEX DANVERS AND I AM GAY! I LIKE GIRLS AS MORE THAN FRIENDS!” Alex yelled, grinning at herself in the mirror. 

“That’s the spirit, Danvers!” Ellie cheered, as Alex burst into happy tears. 

“Thank you.”

“Do you finally believe it?” Ellie asked, gesturing to the mirror. 

“Yeah… a little.”

“A little is still progress.” Ellie gave Alex a hug. “I’m proud of you for taking this first step forward. I’m proud of you for coming up and telling me. Most of all, I’m proud of you, Alex.”

Alex continued to cry a little, laughing as she gazed at herself in the mirror. Ellie could see Alex’s shoulders loosen just a little, accepting that she was gay, and it wasn’t bad, and no one was going to come after her with pitchforks and torches.

“I told Kara… and I’m not sure if she took it well… as well as you have,” Alex muttered. “I wanted to speak to her… could you come with?”

“Of course.”

Maybe it was the first time that Ellie fully registered it. It was the first time she had really seen that she had blurred the line between close friend and family. And as Alex gushed about Maggie, she smiled, happy that Alex had that sparkle in her eye. Ellie gave Kara a hug, pressing a kiss to her temple, listening to Alex.

“You’re both not alone,” Ellie whispered, hugging them both. “Okay?”

Alex nodded, but Kara hesitated.

With that, Ellie returned to Lena with a smile.

“What’s gotten you in such a happy mood?” Lena asked.

“Ah… a happy day for the gays alike,” Ellie grinned, skipping towards the suit before automatically ducking as it flew over her head with extended wrist blades. “... Bright-eyes, can we not have the wrist blades extended when it's flying to me?”

“Oops. So… you’re gay then?” Lena asked.

“Nah, maybe a teensy weensy bit gay. As Miss Kara Danvers would put it; I’m in love with a pan, apparently.” Ellie whistled as she tinkered with the suit.

“So you’re pansexual?” Lena guessed.

“Bingo! Right on the money!” Ellie caught a screwdriver being thrown at her. “You are a genius for this idea…”

“Takes one to know one.”

Her phone buzzed with something, a message from Supergirl. She connected it to her earpiece.

“Y’ello? This is Pyromaniac speaking.”

_“Ellie?”_ Kara was crying.

“Superpuppy? What’s wrong?” Ellie asked, hands dropping to her sides as she heard Kara sniffing.

_ “Can you come by the DEO?” _

“I… can’t. I’m working on the suit, pup.” Ellie looked at the suit, then furrowed her brows. “Supergirl? What happened? Are you hurt?”

_ “No.” _

“Liar liar skirt on fire.”

_ “J’onn is calling me… I need to go.” _

“Super- oh nuts, she hung up on me.”

“You know… you can check on her,” Lena said. “I’ll be fine here.”

Ellie looked between the suit and Lena and her phone. “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about this that I need my suit.”

“Will they inform you if things go sideways?”

“I bloody hope so.” She paused. “I really, really hope so.”

And they did.

Ellie may be more vulnerable without her suit, but that didn’t mean she could kick ass. Still, with this new alien around, she was best off of the field while her suit was repaired.

She ripped down the road in her motorcycle, roaring into the carpark as she saw a gigantic purple monster leaping away and agents firing at it.

“Where the hell is Kara?!” Ellie snapped.

Kara looked like she could embody a skeleton. J’onn was just as bad as Alex was trying to get medics to help them as she was frantically shouting. 

“Move bitch, that’s my sister right there!” Ellie shouted, shoving aside an agent before just staring at Kara.

It all went by in a blur. The sun lamps, the information overload, slowly Kara could come back but J’onn needed a blood transfusion.

She had stormed back into the lab, working with ferocious intensity that Lena was concerned.

“Ellie…”

“This thing is going to BURN,” Ellie spat. “And when it burns… I’ll stand and watch.”

“Getting angry isn’t the best way-“

“There’s no time, Lena!” Ellie shouted, slamming the tools into the table, startling the CEO. She lowered her volume. “I have no time. That Parasite drains Supergirl one more time… she’s dead. As her partner, I cannot afford that to happen.”

“Ellie-“ Lena grabbed her hands and shook it. “She doesn’t need Pyromaniac. She needs Agent Ellie Hunter. I think that’s what you’re doing wrong this time around. Like Kara. I think you’ve been too much of Ellie the protector- she needs more of Ellie the friend. You can’t fight fire with fire. You need to fight smart.” Lena gestured to the suit. “And you can fight smart. With or without the suit.”

Ellie nodded as Lena smiled, before they heard cars crumpling and people screaming. “That’s your cue.”

Ellie had gone to the scene, rip roaring on her motorcycle as she drove past hordes of terrified people.

She was honestly surprised to see Mon-El engaging the monster, and a new guy with a suit that seemed so similar to hers but less… flame themed.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mon-El shouted. “Run!”

“I’m the Pyromaniac.” She revved up her motorcycle and drove at Parasite, engine roaring as she used a car as a ramp to fling the motorcycle off of. She did a backflip off of the motorcycle as it slammed into Parasite’s face, sending him back a few feet. She fiddled with her watch as Parasite snarled.

“You have no suit!” Mon-El shouted.

“That’s the point.”

The monster screeched as the suit flew into Parasite’s back, the extended wrist blades actually making a difference now as they stabbed into Parasite.

He scrambled, trying to get it off, but it just dug deeper, trying to mow through this thick obstacle to get to its owner.

Thank you bright-eyes for not actually retracting the blades, Ellie thought as she yelled at Mon-El, “Throw me at the suit!”

“Why?!”

“Just trust me!”

Mon-El hesitated, before grabbing her by the waist and heaving her at full speed towards the suit. The back of the suit opened and Ellie landed safely in it.

“Ow.”

It closed back up, as the visor went online. The systems booted up, scanning and relaying information back at her as the inside of the suit cooled.

_ [Welcome aboard, Agent.] _

“Oh nice, the additional systems worked,” Ellie said, as with the blades still dug into Parasite’s back, she used her taser fingertips to electrocute the monster. “Increase voltage.”

The man in the suit launched an explosive, sending Parasite stumbling off course.

_ [Incoming transmission] _

“Answer it,” Ellie said, clinging on for dear life. “Oof.”

_ “I’m on my way. Are you- are you fighting that thing?”  _ Kara's voice felt like honey to her ears.

“Not fighting. Just delaying. Do you have a plan?”

_ “I do, but it requires you to delay it a little more.” _

“Got it.” The wrist flamethrowers sparked now, going at full blast in point blank range. “Wow Lena… you and I did amazing.”

_ [Incoming projectile] _

“Wait what the fu-“

One of the tin man’s bombs had latched close to Ellie, exploding and sending her flying and crashing through a shop window. Her visor scanned around for any potential weapons, ammo, supplies, but came up empty. She and Lena had also come up with some nifty gadgets on her utility belt (Ellie hated that thing) including the yellow sun grenade.

“Dude! Watch where you’re aiming those things!” Ellie yelled back, visor unpolarizing for a moment so that they could see her face. Mon-El was hurling cars at Parasite.

“Sorry,” the tin man said.

“Any day now, Supergirl…” she muttered, as the tin man engaged in combat, as she scanned the surroundings for any sign of Kara. “Oh oh!”

Supergirl smashed into Parasite, sending him flying. 

“Took you a damn long time, Supergirl!” Ellie smirked.

“New upgrade?” Kara asked, amused.

“Fuck yes. No more chunky jetpacks!” Ellie fistpumped the air. She saw Mon-El come over, and she sighed. She had to admit he tried to help.

They all watched as Parasite exploded.

BOOM!

Ellie watched as the tin man- Guardian- left, as Kara came to stand beside her and Mon-El, watching him leave.

“Did you find out who he is?”

“No.”

Ellie sighed, before smiling at Mon-El, giving him a hearty hit on the back which he actually reeled at. “Ow! What is your suit made of!”

“Sorry, it’s powered to adjust to whoever I’m hitting. Still a couple of bugs to work out. Nice job there, man.”

“Alien,” he corrected, as Kara laughed and hugged Ellie.

“I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Likewise.” Ellie returned the hug. “Are you going to tell me what made you so upset?”

“Um… that would be me.” Mon-El shifted awkwardly, as Ellie’s pride for him quickly waned.

“What?” Ellie’s tone grew harder.

“Mon-El…” 

“I was the one who made her cry.”

“Start. Talking,” Ellie demanded, brandishing her wrist blade at his throat.

“Look, I was mad, and-and she was mad and…”

“Ellie,” Kara shifted. “I think I’m ready to have that conversation now.”

Ellie lowered her blade, looking back at Kara. “You sure?”

She nodded, fiddling with the edge of her cape. “Positive.”

With a flick of her wrist, she retracted her blade. “I’ll deal with you later,” she told Mon-El, before giving him a swift jab to the gut. He groaned, doubling over. 

“I think I deserved that.” 

“But it was true, though,” Kara said. “I’m not a hero or a saint.”

“Kara, no one is purely a hero or saint,” Ellie tried, but Kara cocked her head to the side. 

“I- I’m sorry, maybe we shouldn’t have this conversation now, Alex needs me.”

“Kara-” 

“She probably needs you, too.” With that, Supergirl took to the skies abruptly, leaving a sonic boom behind. 

“Well, Mon-El, one step forward, two steps back,” Ellie sighed, before turning to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. “For what it’s worth though, you were a hero today, even if it just was for a little while. I’m proud of that.” She paused, trying to find some positive ground with Mon-El. “I’m proud of you. And I don’t say that to just anybody. And maybe there was some truth to what you said, that she wasn’t a hero, not totally. But everyone has flaws. Did she say anything?”

“She called me selfish, like a Daxamite.”

“You know, aliens always fight the battle to prove others’ perceptions of them wrong. It’s time you join that battle.” She gave him a hearty clap on his shoulder. “Do it. Prove her wrong.”

“Do you really think I can do it?”

“No offense, I didn’t like you. I still don’t. But I firmly believe that most aliens can be given a chance to live well. If you don’t want to be a hero, well…” she shrugged. “The least you can do is to help others and be more than what you are right now.” With that, she took off into the skies, heading off to Alex’s apartment. 

She landed with a thump as the suit whirred to open, and released her from the suit’s confines.

“Both of you. Forget I said anything,” Alex said.

“What’s going on?” Ellie asked.

“Forget it! I made a mistake. I made a mistake coming out. I was wrong, and I shouldn’t have said anything, I should have just kept my mouth shut!” Alex kicked at the suit, which had closed up, but all she got was a throbbing foot and a string of curse words.

“What happened?” Kara asked.

“She doesn’t like me,” Alex whispered. “Not like that.”

She choked, suddenly. Ellie and Kara both gave her a hug. 

“I’m not proud… I just feel so humiliated.” 

“Well, we are. Alex, I still stand by what I said. I am so proud of you. For accepting, for believing, for having the courage to say it. It’s so hard to do this, but Alex, I am proud. We are proud.” 

Ellie filled the silence, while Kara’s presence was more than enough to fill the gaps.

“I’m proud of you, Alex,” Kara whispered, and for the rest of the time, it was simply silence, save for Alex sobbing.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a doozy. I got a question. Who should Ellie date? I need to set her up with someone but I don't know who. Also, it will be very good for the Kara-Mon-El storyline. He's not going to be a total ass, but he will be an ass. Possible candidates are Sam (if this happens, I will bring her back early), Jess. Of course if you have other candidates, I'm open to hearing it. Ellie is pansexual, she's about the same age as Kara. 
> 
> Also, Pyromaniac is here to stay, though Kara will be rushing out without backup oftentimes than not. Kara is very stubborn and reckless in this story, hence the need for a superpowered sidekick for a superpowered hero, because I don't think Alex can stop Kara physically.
> 
> Lena is the ultimate bro friend with Ellie and no one can change my mind. Lena, Winn and Ellie will be the three agents of scientific destruction.


	3. Disease

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parasite happens. Ellie becomes a fully fledged sidekick. Kara learns to have a sidekick and not ditch her in any way. Medusa happens and Ellie doesn't know what to think when things start blossoming between Mon-El and Kara. The portals around town open. Ellie tests her faith in Lena and tests her will with Cadmus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention that Ellie would also be there for all of the crossovers? I didn't? Well, she will be. Even Crisis on Infinite Earths. I honestly think she'd make a Paragon, but I'm not sure.

Sometimes, Ellie wondered what it was like to be a vigilante.

“I don’t really… people shouldn’t be trusting him that quickly,” Kara protested. “If you’re on the up and up, why wear a mask?”

“Protection. Not all of us can be like you, Kara. And I wear a mask!”

“You wear a helmet, there’s a difference.”

“I think Guardian is helping the city. Three against one? That’s huge,” James defended.

“I think… he has a sidekick,” Alex theorized. “He always seems to be one step ahead. That screams sidekick to me.”

“So do I!” Kara said, and all eyes went across the table to Ellie, who smirked in amusement.

“Ah, yes, the sidekick you conveniently leave behind half the time.”

(Ellie thought back to boots hitting the floor.

“Supergirl! Go low!”

Kara landed, catching the katana that Ellie threw at her before using it to slash at a gun, breaking it completely as the alien growled, grabbing Kara by the cape and yanking her upwards.

_ “Don’t worry! I got this!”  _ Kara yelled over her earpiece as she regained her balance and tackled the alien into the next town over.

“Dude, you have got to stop tackling them into the stratosphere!” Ellie said back, holding out a hand for her katana. The katana automatically flew back into her hand. “And stop leaving me behind!”

The following response was Kara being smashed into the dirt.

“Okay, maybe I so don’t got this.”)

“The point is, vigilantes are nuts.”

“Kara’s jealous,” Winn smirked, and Kara gave an offended gasp.

“I am not!”

She had to agree a little with James and Winn though. Guardian  _ was _ impressive. Not all vigilantes were nuts, honestly. People had come to call her vigilante too, despite operating as a DEO agent like… all the time. But Kara was sort of right. People were really fast in trusting Guardian. Then again, she was a little hypocritical there, considering her debut as Supergirl was marked with a lot of doubt. Heck, even Ellie had to gain the public’s trust for a long ass time. She would still be on that process if not for Supergirl saying that she was a ‘sidekick’, so there was a plus.

It just didn’t help that her identity was also quite obvious, but so far, no one had come running to her for interviews.

Yet.

“Guys, this is Maggie,” Alex introduced.

Oh no. This was going to go really bad or really well. 

“I know you, you’re the Pyromaniac.”

“Copy that, detective,” Ellie smirked. 

Kara hadn’t talked to Ellie. Or Alex. It made Ellie quite frustrated, considering that Kara was back to being reckless. But she seemed fine. Keyword: seemed.

It was weird, seeing Kara like this. Seemingly normal when there were so many things bubbling underneath. And she grew quite frustrated at this, as she kept tabs on the whole Guardian thing.

She came back to Lena, who was talking to a woman. Ellie still had no special all-access pass to her office, so she just took to hovering outside the balcony in her suit while she finished talking to the woman.

As soon as she left, Ellie touched down on the balcony and the suit released her. “Hey, Lena! You got a minute?”

“Ellie. I heard about Parasite. I take it the suit worked?” Lena asked, as Ellie and her shared a high five.

“Indeed indeed! I also wanted to give you some token of appreciation. It’s not MUCH but…” Ellie slid a book about learning how to have fun across her desk to Lena. “I figured you liked reading.”

“I knew you wouldn’t last long without a jab at how hard I work,” Lena smirked.

“So, the place that I work at knows you upgraded my suit,” Ellie said, conversationally. Lena froze for a tiny moment, eyes flickering with a bit of fear.

“How’d they take it?”

“It was… cautious. But they welcomed the upgrade,” Ellie mused, watching the TV. “I’m sure that they’ll warm up- hey, what the?”

Guardian implicated for murder.

“New vigilante in town gone bad?” Lena asked. “You know him?”

“No. He helped us with Parasite once and that’s it. I’m not sure. I think I need to investigate.”

“FBI butting in on a NCPD case? How new,” Lena grinned. “Why are you here exactly?”

“Well, I’m actually here to fix a few bugs in the suit… unless you’d rather me be killed because of said bugs…” Ellie trailed off, and Lena snorted. 

“Just smoke your cigarettes outside and I’ll help you with your suit.”

“Deal!”

They worked for the rest of the day, Ellie apologizing just hovering outside her balcony like a creep. Lena laughed and said that Supergirl did the same, Ellie making a mental note to tease Kara about it later. 

“So, uh, I see you’ve got some new kits,” Ellie noted various additions to Lena’s lab, compared to the last time she was there.

“Some people really wanted to make amends with me, so they sent me their tools as a redemption gift.” Lena sounded conflicted. “I just… don’t know if I should… believe them?”

“Lena, forgive when you’re ready,” Ellie said wisely, installing a brand new system she left on hold the last time she wanted to upgrade the suit. She had inadvertently left it with Lena by accident. She and Lena had completed it in a few hours, using the new tools Lena had, which cut down their work by half and gave them more time to mess with other prototype functions, such as the shield function and the wrist guns functions.

“I just don’t know if I should.” 

“This sounds like an overly cheesy line, but follow your heart!” Ellie said simply, sighing as she stretched, her bones making a satisfying crack. “You will know whether to forgive them or not.”

The suit hissed as the front opened, allowing Ellie to step inside to join Kara for her night patrols. “See ya later, alligator.”

“In a while, crocodile.”

Both Supergirl and Pyromaniac took to the skies, receiving a transmission from Alex about needing backup for Guardian at the wharf.

“So, Kara, are you going to leave me behind again or…”

Kara halted, hands flying to her ears as Ellie paused, turning back to her in worry. “What’s wrong? Are you-”

“Cadmus,” Kara breathed, and Ellie’s heart immediately sank and froze.

“If you think you’re a hero then you’re crazier than I thought,” Kara hissed.

She looked wildly around the city, before looking abruptly up at Ellie. “Ellie-”

The suit sparked suddenly, creating a massive jolt of electricity that caused Ellie to screech in pain. The suit jerked itself automatically, flying Ellie into a specific flight pattern. She tried to move but it wouldn’t work, and suddenly she felt like she had lost control of the entire suit. The rebreather and oxygen systems kept shutting on and off sporadically, choking and suffocating her. Her visor came alive with an incoming transmission.

_ “Hello, Ellie…” _ The voice purred.  _ “I take it you’re enjoying your ride?” _

The suit let out another jolt of electricity and Ellie screamed. It felt like white-hot lasers were stabbing into her.

“You… what the hell did you do to my suit?” She crashed through the wall of a building, breaking it and destroying it, landing at the feet of a familiar person. “J’onn…?”

“Welcome to Cadmus,” he sneered, “Pyromaniac.”

Then she was knocked out.

She woke up woozily, in a cell next to Mon-El and Kara, suit-free. Her head was still spinning, as she held onto the bars for support.

“What the hell-?”

“You okay?” Mon-El asked. She looked down at Kara, who was still knocked out.

“We are so dead,” Ellie muttered, leaning against the cage bars in exhaustion. “I’m not sure what happened to my suit, why it freaked out like that…”

“I like your designs, Agent Hunter,” a voice said. The same voice in the transmission. “There is so much talent in you… so much that could be used for Cadmus. Though, not as good as my Lex…”

“Hi, okay, sorry to interrupt the villain monologue, but why does everybody idolize Lex? The dude’s smart, but he’s trying to perform genocide. Multiple genocides.”

“So misguided… and to think I liked you working with Lena…” 

“What does Lena have to do with this anyways?” Ellie asked, confused. “Are you some sort of Luthor-crazy fan?”

“You will watch your mouth in here, Agent Hunter,” the voice replied sharply.

“Sorry, I don’t take orders from a disembodied voice in the walls- ow!” One of the guards slammed the butt of his rifle through the bars.

“I get that. They’re not very fun,” Mon-El sighed. “I asked them what their favourite baseball team was, just to break the ice. So, who are these people?”

“Here, let me oversimplify these people for you in a few words. Crazy. Xenophobic. Killers.”

“And that means…”

“They hate aliens and want to exterminate all alien life.”

“... news just get better by the second.” Mon-El looked at the guards critically. “So am I lucky contestant number one?”

Kara groaned at that moment, as she sat up.

“You okay?” Both of them asked.

“Yeah… yeah… just…” Kara blinked to clear something from her eyes. “I’m okay.”

“No, no, no we are NOT having this conversation here,” Ellie snapped, jabbing a finger at her. “You aren’t fine.”

“Yeah, well you wouldn’t be if someone used both of your friends to push you into a crazy, alien-hating base!” Kara yelled back.

“Supergirl-” Kara dropped like a sack of potatoes, curling up on her side and whimpering. “Supergirl!”

Ellie wanted to break the bars, destroy them, do whatever to get to Kara, whose breathing was getting heavier by the second. “I need you to stay with me, okay? Supergirl, Supergirl!”

She reached out her hand through the bars, trying to grab Kara’s hand. “Try grabbing this, it will help you feel better.”

Kara reached out, but the cage rattled and moved, sliding Ellie away from Kara abruptly, slamming her back against the bars as Kara screamed.

“What in Rao’s name-” Mon-El was standing now, trying to reach through the bars to reach Kara’s hand as well, but his cage jerked back, sending him flying to the other side.

Kara was curled up, unable to move, shaking, hyperventilating.

“Supergirl!”

_ No, no, no… this could not be happening. _ Ellie thought, wanting to will the bars to move and break. On the other side of the room, Mon-El was struggling as well, trying to pull the bars open.

“Just hang on, okay! I’ll… think of something!” But her voice was unsure as she searched for something. “Hey, assholes! Are you going to leave her like that?!”

No response from the guards.

“You guys have a face not even a mother would love!”

Nothing.

“Supergirl, please… just focus on my voice.” Ellie sank down onto the floor. “Remember when we were kids and you accidentally broke my game console? You were so sorry that you came to me with flowers, apologizing profusely till your mom thought you were trying to court me! Do you remember that?”

She was still shaking, but she turned her head to look at Ellie and gave a tiny discreet nod. Ellie sighed in relief, thinking of other happy memories, something sweet.

“Do you remember the time when we went to one of your sister’s rebellious outings during her punk rock phase and you thought that it was a rock literally dressed as a punk? I fell out of a tree and broke my ankle and you cried over and over thinking I was dead because in your words, “Humans were so fragile,” and I tried to calm you down but I couldn’t so I began singing terribly to you. Do you remember the song?”

Kara opened her mouth then, and began to sing, “Goodnight, goodnight, it’s time now to sleep…”

Ellie nodded, following along. “The moon’s watching over you in your dreams…”

“Goodnight, goodnight my sweet little one…”

“Tomorrow your eyes they will light up the sun…”

Kara’s breaths slowed, as she flexed her fingers against the ground, her tears drying on her cheeks. Her eyes were open, but they had dulled to a dark gray, as she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet.

“My, my, that was an astounding performance.” A woman bearing the voice walked into the room, clapping sardonically. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

“Yeah, well I don’t think we’ve introduced either- ow!” Ellie yelped as both her and Mon-El’s cages jerked back right next to Kara’s suddenly.

“Watch your tone.”

“I know you, you were talking to Lena after I left,” Kara said, trying to maintain her Supergirl persona.

“Yeah, and you were the nice lady I had to wait for to leave before talking to Lena. What the hell were you doing there?”

“Well… I don’t like the idea of you hanging around my daughter.” She pointed to Kara, whose fists have balled in anger and frustration. “And now that you seem to make your allegiance known, I don’t like you around her either.” She pointed at Ellie.

“Gee, helicopter parent much?” Ellie snarked, folding her arms.

“You’re Lillian Luthor,” Kara realized, before growing furious. “Does Lena know about Cadmus?!”

Alarm bells went up in Ellie’s head. “Those tools used to upgrade my suit. You rigged them so that you could take control remotely and force it to malfunction. You were the one who sent them, that’s why you were in Lena’s office. You knew I was going to her for upgrades. You made my suit malfunction.”

Lillian smirked as Kara looked back at her. “Does she know who her mother really is?!” Kara roared, slamming her fist on the bars.

“And what are you to my daughter?”

“If you’re helicopter parenting her, I’d say you really shouldn’t be worth a lot to her,” Ellie muttered darkly.

A rifle butt slammed into her head.

Kara gritted her teeth. “I’m a friend.”

Ellie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Kara was overly protective of Lena and would not stop talking about her. Clearly, ‘friend’ wasn’t the right term here.

“I’ve heard that before,” Lillian smirked, looking her over, before going on a huge villain monologue about Lex and Superman which Ellie would like to point out, was another different matter entirely.

“That explains the whole… crazy-Luthor fan… thing…” Ellie said, spitting out some blood. “The only poison here is you and your kind.”

Lillian sighed, waving a hand as the guards opened her cell and yanked her out. “Ow! Seriously, what’s with Americans and the limitations of free speech via violence?!”

“So… what the hell do you want from me?” Kara growled as they plonked Ellie onto the floor unceremoniously.

“I need you to be human for a little while…” Lillian smirked and Ellie stiffened. “I know that with your fight with Red Tornado when you expel enough of your heat vision, you deplete the solar radiation in your cells…”

“Supergirl, no.”

“I want you to use it on this helmet, designed and built to absorb that kind of radiation.”

“You want me to solar flare?” Kara’s voice was shaking and angry, but also terrified. She was frightened of being like a human, knowing it would trigger memories of Krypton. “That’s never gonna happen.”

“I can’t hurt you… but I can hurt them.”

Ellie’s eyes widened, before a gas mask was forcibly placed on her face and a nasty hissing sound began to fill the air. Lillian walked around to Mon-El, shooting him in the leg as he shouted in pain. Ellie thrashed, trying to get it off, but it felt like there was no air in the room, not enough oxygen for her to breathe.

“The air concentration has an increased amount of carbon dioxide, tricking your mind into thinking that there’s not enough oxygen.” Lillian’s voice sounded far away, with Kara shouting something back. “Meanwhile, your Daxamite friend is powerful, but has a very bad lead allergy.”

“Stop! I’ll do it.” Kara was looking between Ellie and Mon-El. “Just don’t shoot him and stop suffocating her. Give me the helmet.”

Ellie’s brain was screaming with panic, black dots appearing in her vision as her breaths quickened trying to get more oxygen in her lungs, fighting hard to rip the oxygen mask off of her face. But her hands were tied behind her back.

_ No, Kara no! _

And as Kara fell to the floor from solar flaring, did they finally remove the mask, and Ellie gasped, feeling sick and the room was spinning, spinning hard as Lillian slapped Kara.

“Take her.”

Lillian turned back to Ellie, crouching down in front of her. “And this isn’t too late to back out and join Cadmus.”

Ellie was still gasping for air, but she still managed to spit into Lillian’s face. “I hope I’ll be the one to burn you in hell, bitch.”

Lillian’s face grew cold. “Of course you live up to your namesake, Pyromaniac.”

She gave Lillian a brilliant, mad grin. “That’s the best darned compliment I’ve heard all day! It’s a shame it came from a mad scientist- oof!”

Lillian backhanded her, sending her sprawling to the floor as the men kicked at her back, forcing her head to jerk forward.

“What a waste of a perfect mind. She’s already been corrupted. Take her.”

Ellie was slammed into the wall, before she ducked to avoid an incoming punch. Hooking a leg around a man’s ankle, she forced him to trip before headbutting another guy, causing her vision to white out for a moment and go woozy. The third thug swung a baton, but she dodged it and kicked him back against the cage. The first man she tripped charged at her, slamming her into the wall again before she kicked his groin, causing him to double over and kneed him in the face. The second man swung at her as she saw the third thug coming at her with the baton. They were coming from both sides as she ducked and the third man hit the second dude with his baton, knocking him out. Ellie rolled away, before the man came at her. She backed up against the cage, and figuring that it was strong enough to hold a Kryptonian and a Daxamite…

PING! 

She dodged the baton blow, causing it to come into full contact at the bars, snapping it in half. The thug roared, tossing his baton aside as he watched her.

This time, she was the one who charged, leaping up and wrapping her legs around his neck as he fell backwards with a yelp, his head slamming against the cage and he was out like a light.

Ellie stood, gasping, still with her hands tied behind her back. She levelled a gaze at the Luthor, before smirking. “You’re done.”

Lillian seemed unfazed, instead holding up her gun. “I was going to let you go, but now I see you have left me no choice. Come quietly, or I’m shooting your Daxamite friend.”

“No,” Mon-El said. “Not you too.”

“Okay, okay, just chill! It’s not like you cared about them anyways,” Ellie said quickly. “You know, I would raise my hands, but I need a little help here…”

“Don’t you dare,” Mon-El said. “Don’t you dare.”

“She needs you,” Ellie whispered.

And it was true. Kara needed Mon-El. Kara needed someone she felt safe with. Kara needed an alien friend. Kara needed someone from the same galaxy as she was, because J’onn couldn’t keep up sometimes with Kryptonian culture. Mon-El was the closest thing she had to Kryptonian friend, and after Astra and Non, she needed that. Kara needed someone like her, something that no one else would be able to fill.

“Chop chop then.” Lillian pushed Ellie forward. 

“Knowing you, emphasis on the  _ chop _ ,” Ellie muttered bitterly, and Lillian let out a short laugh.

“Yes, little Hunter. Chop.”

Ellie felt sick to her stomach as she was forcibly made to sit down. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Kara demanded, but she was terrified. “Let her go, I solar flared for you.”

“Supergirl…” Ellie stuttered, knowing Kara was going to panic at being strapped down, not being able to move. She was trapped, combined with the feeling of being human…

“Try not to struggle… this will all be over soon…”

“What the hell do you need my blood for?” Kara screamed, thrashing harder. “Let her go!”

Lillian ignored her. “In time, you will learn that aliens are a poison to this planet.”

“You can’t be serious,” Ellie said. “Aliens aren’t fucking poison!”

There was the taste of blood in Ellie’s mouth as she struggled against the restraints, as Lillian walked closer, hand coming up to stroke Ellie’s jawline, forcing her to look up at her. Kara was screaming, restraints rattling left and right as she hyperventilated. “Ellie! Ellie!”

“We strive to better humanity by eradicating the pests. We have converted many to our cause, and I have no doubt we will do the same for you.”

“You all are monsters!” Kara spat.

“I think you’ll find, Supergirl, that you are the monster when you realize that even those closest to you will defect far away from you, to us. And you will be stuck there. Trapped. Unable to help. You are nothing but a poison to everyone around you. All you do is hurt. You’re not a hero. You never will be. You’re just a pathetic little alien parading around in a skirt and cape.”

Kara’s number one fear above all else was losing someone she loves. The next was abandonment. The third was her claustrophobia. In this situation she was tapping into all three as Kara began to rattle her restraints more.

“Ellie! I’m going to get you, Lillian!” Kara growled, but tears were pulling free from her eyes as she thrashed and tried to get to Ellie.

“Supergirl… don’t let her get to you. You know I’ll never leave you!”

“Oh but nobody can promise that, Agent Hunter. Nobody can promise that.” Lillian levelled a gun at her. “I’m going to count to three, Supergirl, and you have that many seconds to catch the bullet.”

Lillian was playing games. Psychological mind games.

Ellie rattled her restraints as they let Kara go as Lillian counted.

“One…”

Kara stumbled off of the platform, breaths heaving with hyperventilation, eyes wide as she scrambled to her feet to get to Ellie.

“Two…”

Ellie rattled her restraints, trying to leap off the chair.

“Three!”

BANG!

Kara dove for Ellie, but it was very clear she wasn’t going to catch the bullet. Ellie could feel the bullet whiz past her and into the wall, missing hair by a hair.

“You can’t save anyone, Supergirl.” Lillian smirked, as Kara stumbled to her feet to check over Ellie in a blind panic. “Take them back.”

This time, she and Kara were put in the cell together as Kara crumpled, sobbing, holding on to Ellie.

“I gotcha… I gotcha… it’s okay…” Ellie whispered, as Kara leaned her head against her chest and sobbed, gripping onto her shirt for dear life. She pressed a kiss to the superhero’s forehead. “I’m still here… see? I’m okay… I’m okay… shhh… it’s okay…”

She gathered Kara into her arms and rocked them both back and forth on the cold floor of the cell, making sure not to jostle Kara from where she leaned her head on her chest. Ellie knew Kara needed to hear her heartbeat, and held onto her, singing that same song that comforted Kara in the past.

When Kara had calmed down enough, she kept her head pressed to Ellie’s chest and Ellie just kept humming, hoping it would keep her calm.

“Is she going to be okay?” Mon-El asked lowly.

“I don’t know…”

“Ellie?” Kara whimpered, clutching at her. “If I… if I don’t get out of here… tell Alex that I love her. Tell her to keep living life on her own terms. And that I… I wasn’t scared.”

Ellie sighed, but chuckled. “You, Mon-El?”

“If I don’t make it and you do, you’re welcome to tell everybody I was scared out of my mind.” They all laughed miserably at that.

“Pyromaniac?” Mon-El asked.

“Tell them I went out in a blaze of glory, like a true pyromaniac should be.”

“Take it seriously,” Kara laughed hoarsely.

“Fine, fine… tell Alex that… she was one of the greatest sisters I could ask for. And that whatever she does, I’m so proud of her.” Ellie paused, before hugging Kara. “And you too. You are the best little alien sister I can possibly have. And I’m so proud of you in whatever you do. I love you, okay? No matter what happens.”

Kara swallowed hard. “No matter what happens.”

“El mayarah,” Ellie repeated. “Remember? Stronger together.”

“El mayarah,” both Mon-El and Kara repeated.

They sat in a lull for a while. “You know, I always think. Why me? Why am I the only one who survived Daxam? You know, if I die here… maybe I deserve to.”

“No,” Ellie cut in sharply. “You may be a prat, you may be a fuckboy, you may be one hell of a rude guy sometimes, but you have potential. No one deserves to die anyways. We aren’t gods, we don’t choose who lives or dies. Okay?”

“Besides, that prince on Daxam, he sacrificed himself so you could live-”

“Kara, there’s something I need to tell you about Daxam…”

There was a beep of an electronic lock, and the rattle of the doors as Kara and Ellie jumped to their feet as the cell door swung open.

The hooded man made the universal gesture for ‘follow me’ but neither Kara or Ellie were buying it.

“Come on, follow me.”

Ellie’s eyes widened at the familiar voice. She was around the Danvers before Kara, and she knew this voice. The same man who laughed with her and Alex and their other friends, the one who’d help Alex do her work, the scientific genius known as…

“Who the hell are you?” Kara demanded, stepping forward, but Ellie held her back with a hand.

“... Jeremiah?”

The hooded figure pulled down their hood as he looked at Kara with a pleading expression. “Kara, it’s me.”

“Help…” Mon-El rasped, and he suddenly collapsed. 

Throughout this whole encounter, questions filled Ellie’s mind. Why was Jeremiah here? How did he survive? J’onn had said something about Jeremiah being in Cadmus when Alex and him got captured, but why did he appear now? 

And memories appeared. Where he taught Alex DNA. Where he taught Ellie complex mathematical formulae. Kara’s glasses. His death. The mourning. The grief. The loss of control of Alex, spiralling down and down and down until she ended up in a jail cell. Even Ellie felt the loss, and she was around the Danvers for so long. Kara had had multiple meltdowns after the loss of Jeremiah, weeping and sobbing and it was all a bleak time. Ellie remembered getting flowers for Eliza, sympathies, condolences. Kara screaming. Kara sobbing. Kara shouldering another loss. Kara and Alex at odds. 

Her train of thought was shattered by Jeremiah suddenly and quickly hugging her. “Thank you for taking care of my girls,” he whispered. “Your mother would be so proud of you.”

She tentatively hugged him back. 

“I’m not leaving you,” Kara protested as Ellie pulled away. 

This man was leagues better than her father ever was. She had never heard anybody say that someone would be proud of her. 

“Just go. I’ve been here 15 years, I’ll survive a little longer.”

“NO!” Kara howled, and it took all of Ellie’s effort to push Kara through the metal gate as people began to run down the hallways.

“We need to go, Kara…”

“Jeremiah!” Kara shouted as Ellie began to drag her away. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Thank you, Jeremiah.” Ellie finally found the emotion she was looking for. Gratitude. “For everything.”

And they went into the light.

When they arrived back at the DEO, Alex ran to Kara, tackling her into a hug.

“I just heard. I had no idea Cadmus took you and Ellie.”

“I still exist here,” Mon-El said unhappily. 

Ellie looked at them reuniting, before slipping away, back into her labs. Her suit was totaled, she needed a brand new suit again. She groaned, leaning back on a chair. Kara wasn’t okay. Kara was sobbing when they arrived at the DEO. Kara was blaming herself, over and over. Kara was…

Ellie pulled her knees up to her chest, hissing at the multiple bruises she had from the night. Why did seeing Jeremiah hurt her so bad? What happened? Why did- nothing even made sense. She had to be strong. For Kara. For Alex. 

Nothing made sense anymore, her mind was running in circles and she just simply sank to the floor and sobbed. Why was her life even like this?

She barely noticed the door to her labs opening and Kara and Alex padding over to her.

“Oh, honey, what’s wrong?” Kara asked, draping her cape over Ellie, who realized she was shivering in the lab.

“I just realized… I just realized what I didn’t have as a kid.”

This was a side of Kara not many people got to see. The comforting, quiet, empathetic side that was only reserved for people who really knew her. 

“Did seeing Jeremiah make you upset?” Kara asked.

“I missed him too, and I didn’t realize it.” Ellie shook her head. “I really didn’t… I never had a family.”

“Well, you have us now,” Alex said, easing herself next to Ellie and wrapping an arm around her. “We’re family.”

“Remember what you told me in the cell? El Mayarah. Stronger together.”

Ellie sniffed. “Just forget it. Kara, you lost your family several times over. This is nothing.”

“I can’t imagine what it was like to never have a family,” Kara said. “At all. Because while I might have lost my family, I experienced what it was like to have a family. You never got that and I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through growing up without that type of love. To yearn for something but never receiving it. And just because I lost my family doesn’t mean that your pain is smaller than mine.”

“But that’s the thing. I did. I did and I never realized it until I saw Jeremiah and he thanked me for looking after both of you and-” Ellie sobbed bitter tears. “Now I just want to turn back the clock and relive it and feel every moment, because Alex, Kara, I’m forgetting what it’s like.”

“Then we remake it again. We can do that. We’re family.”

Later that evening, they were going through potstickers and pizza night when Ellie stepped out to call Lena and to have a smoke.

“Hey, Lena?”

_ “Ellie, thank God. You’re okay.” _

“My suit malfunctioned… I… I think it was the upgrades. Someone hacked into my suit.”

A pause.

_ “Are you implying me?” _

“I think someone is using you to get to me,” Ellie said, frowning, looking back at Kara. “I- I don’t know who it is… but it’s Cadmus.”

_ “I’ll look into it. Do you need me to-“ _

“Sorry Lena, but I have to develop the suit on my own. I’m not even asking anybody else to help me.” Ellie’s eyes closed. “I’m telling you now because something is happening and they are using you.”

_ “You know who it is.” _

“Would you believe me if I told you?” Ellie asked skeptically.

_ “I suppose not. However, should you need any help…” _

“I can come find you.” Ellie smiled, then sighed. “I think I need the therapist.”

_ “What happened?” _

“So many things.” Ellie pursed her lips, looking back at Kara. “I think this whole adventure just triggered so many things for Kara. She almost lost me. We took so many steps back. I need your help to convince her to… just seek help.”

_ “I can try… but… so do you too.” _

“I know.” Ellie sighed. “My mother died when I was born. My father was a deadbeat, always away, always not there. It was always me and an empty house, feelings of abandonment. There was barely any food on the table, I had literally nonexistent parents and I craved that love.” She kept going, unsure why she was telling Lena this story she barely told anyone but Kara and Alex. “My family- no, not even that… I was dirt poor. I barely stayed afloat. My dad was working… that was why there was a house, there was food, but… he just wasn’t there. He didn’t grace me his physical presence. He didn’t give me notes on the fridge and xs on them. I don’t know his name, don’t know his face, just that he worked as an engineer. I wanted love so badly, Lena. I didn’t know where to get it. I thought that maybe if I did well enough, maybe if I was smart enough, maybe he would come back and say something. Good job and all that. But he never did.”

Until the Danvers. Until the Danvers showed up and she was Alex’s friend and she stuck around and she saw what a family was like, how it should be, the love, the care, respect.

“People tell me my mom was such a good person, that it was a shame that she died. At that point I wondered if… maybe it was best that I was never born at all, maybe she would live. And then… at Cadmus…”

_ Jeremiah told me she would be proud of me. _

Ellie let out a rattling sigh. “I don’t bend easily. Years and years of a lack of love had given me that… God… sorry, didn’t mean to information dump on you.”

_ “Why are you telling me this?” _

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Ellie saw Kara’s flames dying in the cell in Cadmus. She could see her own flames dying too. “Just help me stop Cadmus. It’s…”

_ “Personal?”  _ Lena guessed.

“Personal,” Ellie confirmed. Then, “I trust you, Lena. I really do. I’m just super paranoid about the situation- I don’t even trust the FBI.”

_ “I can understand. There are spies everywhere. I could make a safe space if you want-“ _

“I don’t want to burden you,” Ellie confessed. “The flame suit is a lot of work and-“

_ “You’re not a burden. You’re a hero.” _

“Lena… there are good people, but there are no heroes,” Ellie sighed. “Supergirl taught me that.”

_ “Do you not trust me?” _

“I don’t even trust my own partner with my suit now. But I trust you with helping me… please. Stop Cadmus. They’re up to something not good.”

_ “I’ll see what I can do.” _

Lena hung up the call and Ellie sighed, savouring her cigarette. 

She had a ton of work to do.

But for now… she walked back to the night to hear Mon-El asking… “Has Kara chosen?”

“No, no she has not. Why do you ask?” James asked.

“Oh… just studying Earthly customs.”

“Whatcha’ all talking about?” Ellie asked, jumping on the couch, sensing that Alex and Kara needed to have their own conversation- Ellie had been jumping in far too often. Kara and her did tense at the knocking at the door, convinced it was Cadmus, but only relaxed when Ellie caught a glimpse of Maggie.

“Just asking if Kara has chosen anybody to mate.” Ellie gagged behind Mon-El’s head, but she had to admit it was a little logical. They both had superpowers, they both had similar physiology, they both were the last of their kind, they both were of a similar age? But there was a gnawing in Ellie’s gut that told her Mon-El was not the best guy for Kara, alien or otherwise. It just felt… wrong.

She looked at Winn and James almost furiously, as if blaming them.

In the coming weeks, Ellie would be put off duty as Pyromaniac again, and so was Supergirl. They both sort of whined about it, but J’onn and Alex both had a point- they both needed a break. Plus, Guardian and J’onn posing as Kara seemed to get things covered anyways. Pyromaniac’s absence was questioned, and J’onn (as Supergirl) stepped up to say that Pyromaniac was an agent that simply needed to rest for a bit. Ellie couldn’t exactly argue with that- the Cadmus kidnapping took a lot more out of her than she realized.

The weeks off gave Ellie a chance to rebuild the suit, improve DEO technology, center herself and be with Kara and Alex. And for once… Kara didn’t complain about going to see a therapist- a DEO issued one- which satisfied both Alex and Ellie, though Alex made Kara come talk to her every once in a while. Kara’s self-destructive behaviour decreased. When asked about the change, Kara name-dropped Lena. Ellie repressed a hidden smile. Alex gave Ellie a side glance, as if implicating her. She merely gave a faux innocent shrug of ‘who, me?’ as she took a swig of beer after announcing that her suit was done one sister night.

Overall, Kara progressed. It was a small start, but it was a start nonetheless. There were less and less times of Ellie needing to stay the night, returning to her apartment- which was right next door anyways- and having nightmares of her own. 

It all went to shit on a Thanksgiving.

“NOPE! I will not have you both drinking on Thanksgiving!” Kara declared, speeding over to seize beer bottles from Ellie and Alex, causing a whine and a pout from both.

“But superpuppy…”

Eliza laughed, sitting down at the table with them. “I’m sure Kara is looking out for your wellbeing by preventing you two from destroying your livers.”

“Can’t I smoke?” Ellie protested when she also saw the pack of cigarettes hanging from Kara’s fingers. 

“After being suffocated by Cadmus? No,” Kara declared. “I don’t get how you could still smoke after that.”

“Number one: smoking makes me feel better. Their suffocation techniques did not. Number two: it’s called addiction, Kara.” Ellie made a grab for the smokes, but Kara hovered off the ground, out of her reach. “Hey!”

“You snooze, you lose.” Kara laughed as Ellie hopped up and down like a bunny, reaching out with grabby hands at the pack.

“Should I try smoking too?” Mon-El asked, and everyone at the table shouted “NO!” at him.

“Kara, no cheating,” Eliza admonished. Kara let out an overdramatic groan and floated back to the ground, Ellie successfully snatching back her cigarettes from Kara.

“Good riddance, superpuppy. Next time maybe Guardian will replace me as your new sidekick and I’ll be out of a job.”

Ellie noticed James and Winn looking very uncomfortable with that idea. She chalked it up to both of them being huge fans of Guardian (but boy was she wrong later) and turned to see Kara blowing a raspberry at her.

“Real mature. No wonder they call you Super _ girl _ and not Super _ woman. _ Cat also says she doesn’t regret the name either, she says it’s very fitting for you,” Ellie snickered, knowing it would get a rise out of Kara.

“Yeah, well, unlike  _ someone _ , I didn’t get a choice in what Superhero handle I got!”

“I didn’t either! People just started calling me Pyromaniac and I liked it so I just went and rolled with it!”

“At least you liked it!”

“You eventually did too!”

“Can you two stop bickering already?” Alex groaned into her wine glass. “You’re both worse than me and Kara when we were kids and still hated each other.”

“Ah, Alex,” Ellie said grimly, “you have no idea the arguments between roommates behind closed doors.” She paused. “I still ban Kara from the kitchen though.”

“It was one time, Ellie. Let it go!”

“You burned down the entire kitchen!”

“In my defense the oven was too slow!”

“Children!” Eliza scolded. “You are at the table, and it is Thanksgiving. We should be thankful for each other, not arguing. Now please, settle down.”

“Yes, Eliza,” they both said miserably, sitting at the table.

“Wow, I’ll be damned. Supergirl and Pyromaniac tamed by Dr. Eliza Danvers,” Winn snickered. “A toast to someone being able to control both wrecking ball, destructive maniacs in the city!”

“Amen!” James, Alex and Winn clinked glasses. Mon-El looked confused, Eliza was laughing, Kara and Ellie looked offended and mortified.

“We’re not  _ that _ bad… are we?” Kara asked.

“Yeah… Parasite… Chet… we didn’t make THAT big of a mess right?”

Uncomfortable glances.

“... we did make that big of a mess huh?”

“If if makes you feel better, with you around it wasn’t as much property damage,” Alex offered.

“Wow Alex, thanks, that makes me feel so much better,” Ellie snarked, and the entire table laughed.

“So for the benefit of Mon-El, every year we have a Danvers family tradition, where around the table we say what we are thankful for before the meal,” Kara said. “Who wants to go first?”

“Can I go first-“ Ellie and Alex were about to say something, but James beat them to it, standing up.

Both of them kind of sulked at that.

“Can I just say that I am thankful for Kara for being in my life as a wonderful and understanding friend-“ James started, raising his glass.

“No she isn’t,” Alex growled.

“Yes she is.”

“No. She isn’t.” Alex gave James a meaningful look at Ellie couldn’t pinpoint. This time, Ellie noticed Winn shifting nervously. She made a mental note to question him later.

“... I just wanted to say thank you to Kara.”

At this, Mon-El butts in and Ellie is relieved that he does.

“I also want to say something… I wanna say thank you to Kara for being so gracious, so kind, so understanding… out of anybody who could have found me… I’m the luckiest guy in the world that it was you.”

Ellie nodded at Alex, who jumped in. “I have so many things that I’m thankful for. And I feel a lot like myself. And the main reason is…”

The air around them rippled, and burst into colour, warping space and reality over the table, forcing everybody to fly back in shock. It looked a lot like a smokey portal, before it winked out of existence.

“If we’re going on a universe hopping trip, I wanna say a big N-O,” Ellie broke the silence first. “Not until I’ve had Eliza’s cooking. And my flame suit, but that’s beside the point…”

“I need more wine.”

“Amen to that!”

The next day at the DEO saw Ellie improving DEO inventions, since Supergirl hadn’t been deployed anywhere. J’onn was trying to talk her into her own branch and division but she had pointedly turned it down. She may love being Pyromaniac, but first and foremost, she took care of Kara. Secondly, she was an engineer. J’onn did counter by saying she was one of the best agents in the division in both technical and fighting skills, but she had responded that leading would take all her attention away from honing those two particular areas, so she wasn’t interested. It did mean a weird conversation with Winn after Kara went off to interview Lena to see what she knew.

“Is… that… a malware?” Ellie asked, surprising Winn with a squawk.

“Ellie, you’re going to remove years off of my life!” Winn gasped.

“You didn’t answer me. Is that malware?”

“That is such a caveman way to say it!” Winn scoffed as Ellie rolled her eyes and gave him a look. “... yes, it is malware.”

“Sweet. Who’s it for?” Winn hesitated, mouth hanging ajar a little.

“... Lena.”

Ellie deadpan stared at him. He raised his hands defensively. “Her mother is the Cadmus leader!”

“I perfectly understand your reasons, and I would be angry, and I sort of am, a little, but I’m just laughing on the inside.” Ellie grinned at him as he frowned.

“What? Why?”

“You’re not gonna find anything.”

“Huh?”

“Lena Luthor, billionaire CEO extraordinaire who faces weekly assassination attempts, will see that malware and is either a) going to feed it false information or b) use it to send a virus of her own back into the system.”

“And how… do you know this?”

“Because I’m her friend, you nitwit.” Ellie slapped him upside the head as he groaned. “Oh, and by the way…” She effortlessly kicked at his chair, hooking it as he slid off with a yelp and onto the floor. “What the hell are you hiding?”

“I’m not hiding anything!” Winn blabbered. She laughed, picking him up by the scruff of his collar. Damn, being Pyromaniac had made her strong.

“Right. And fire beats water. Sure.” 

“Agent Hunter!” Vasquez’s voice is sharp. “Put Agent Schott down.”

Ellie sighed, dropping Winn onto his feet. “Sorry, Vasquez. Winn, I’m telling you that secrets only get you so far. Just tell me that it’s not your secret to tell.”

Winn remained quiet.

“You just seemed so… I don’t know… guilty?” Ellie hedged. “If you want to tell me, I’m all ears. Just… secrets weigh you down. A lot.”

Ellie turned to go.

“I- I do want to tell you… and Kara. But not now, okay? Not now when there’s…” 

Ellie gave a shrug. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

The night it happened, she was at the bar with Mon-El. 

“Are you fond of drinking yourself silly?” Mon-El asked. He had been at the bar a lot more since Cadmus.

“I wish I could, but responsibilities. So on and so forth.” Ellie shrugged, knocking back a shot. “What to do but wait, sometimes. Improve this and that.”

“Is Kara… y’know, open to the possibility of mating?”

_ Oh God, this conversation.  _ Ellie knocked back another shot. “I dunno.”

“You don’t like me with her.”

“I’m fairly certain I made that obvious.”

“I’m trying my best,” he huffed. 

“Trying your best to get yourself rejected?”

“Well… I… hold on…” Mon-El squinted at something past her, and she turned to look.

_ Hank Henshaw. _ He looked up and met her eyes, walking past with a hood over his head. Ellie snapped up her watch, pressing for the call flame suit button.

“Maybe he’s just gone for a drink?” Mon-El tried.

“He’s a criminal!” Ellie hissed, getting off her chair and following him. “Come on!”

They exited the bar into a small, dark and dingey alleyway.

“J’onn!” Mon-El shouted.

The man slowly reached up to pull down his hood. One half of his face was covered in a metallic plate, with a glowing blue eye. He reacted fast, spinning around to smash Mon-El into a fence as the flame suit landed, opening for Ellie as she jumped in and fired flames at him in time to get forced back.

Mon-El charged, as Ellie’s brand new flame suit detected something horribly wrong.

_ [Unknown particles detected. Scanning for source…] _

“I have to go back, something’s wrong!” Ellie shouted, as Hank grabbed Mon-El and spun, using his momentum to throw him back at Ellie, sending them both staggering back. The metal groaned under the impact.

“You go! I’ll take care of this!” Mon-El charged at Hank once again as Ellie rushed into the bar.

Smoke was everywhere. It wasn’t smoke, no.

_ [Unknown virus identified. Scanning protein code…] _

Aliens were coughing, collapsing, as Ellie reached where the virus was most prevalent and reached under the bar. The device was beeping red, hissing out the virus as she crushed it between her hands, destroying the device, but it didn’t stop the virus from spreading, or for aliens to gasp out their last breaths.

“Hey, hey!” she shouted, kneeling next to an alien. “Stay with me!” 

The humans were screaming, running outside as Ellie resisted the urge to burn away the air, knowing that alcohol was in the area and would probably ignite and rage out of control. A smart move.

The suit hissed as it opened up, ejecting her from the suit as she went around checking all the aliens, if they were still breathing, if they were still alive…

“What happened?” Mon-El shouted, coming in, fighting against the crowds of humans coming through.

“They’re dead! All the aliens are dead!” Ellie tried to grab Mon-El and bundle him out of the bar before he could contract the virus. “Get the hell out of here now!”

“It’s too late,” Mon-El sighed, stopping Ellie from pushing him out even more. “I think I’m going to die too.”

“No,” Ellie spat, climbing back into her suit and picking up Mon-El bridal style. “To the DEO!”

“Is the carrying necessary?”

It turned out, she also had to be quarantined, since she had technically held the device in her hand, and technically she was a carrier because she ejected from the suit while the virus was still airborne. 

So, cell next to Mon-El she went.

“I’m immune!” she protested. “Whatever this thing is, it doesn’t affect humans. Heck, I don’t even think it would be carried from organism to organism. Whatever it is, it’s so Cadmus related that they won’t even think of harming humans.”

“But you have to remember that Hank placed the device in a place where Pyromaniac can’t live up to her namesake without harming anyone. They could be five steps ahead of us. So, in the meantime, you can’t be placed on active duty. Instead, you will be quarantined here in this cell until further notice,” J’onn said sternly, and Ellie sighed, deflating slightly, sinking down onto the floor with a pout. “Fine.”

Both J’onn and Kara were also staying at the DEO, so, Kara set up a Monopoly game for the three of them down at the cells.

“Wow, Mon-El, welcome to the jail club,” Ellie smirked as he landed in jail with her.

“That feels appropriate,” he groaned, then he looked at the wall where he assumed Ellie would be in the cell next to his. “What happened to drinking yourself silly?”

“Didn’t get the chance to, obviously,” Ellie laughed as Kara took her next turn, jabbing a finger at Ellie. 

“You promised me you wouldn’t do that!” she set down her piece with a huff.

Ellie watched Kara with a small smile on her face. “You seem happier today even though your sister and fellow alien best friend are both in cages under quarantine- we should really have a group name.”

“Jailhouse blues,” Kara laughed.

“What’s blues?” 

“Don’t worry, you’ll both be out of here soon enough. So, don’t pout.”

Mon-El pouted. Ellie raised a hand.

“What?”

“Can I have my-”

“No.”

“Mon-El… you don’t like me, do you?” Kara asked, and Ellie sighed, mentally flipping a coin in her head.

“Wh-what…?”

“She’s asking you if you want to mate with her, dummy. As in, like a genuine question, are you considering her a mate-” Ellie was cut off by coughing from the other cell. “Mon-El?”

There was the hiss of the door opening, klaxon alarms going off, Kara screaming for help. Her voice was a mix of terrified and panicky.

“Kara? Kara, open this damn door- Kara? Mon-El?” Ellie rattled the door and slammed her palms on the glass. “Hey! Somebody!”

“HELP!”

Someone had come to collect Mon-El and Kara, leaving Ellie alone in the cells, still in quarantine. She just leaned against the wall, eyes shut. It had been for a few hours? She didn’t know how long it took. She just stared at four walls with blinking eyes.

“Hey,” Winn said on the umpteenth hour, opening the door with a hiss. 

“Oh thank God, they’re finally letting me out?”

“Yes. They’re putting you back on active duty. We need all the backup we can get. And… humans cannot carry the virus. The Medusa virus. It was engineered… by Kara’s dad.”

_ Dammit. Dammit. Kara’s going to spiral a little. But it’s okay. Maybe she won’t spiral so much? Maybe?  _

“And what now?” she asked as they walked the floors up to Ellie’s suit. 

“They need an isotope from L-Corp to disperse it.”

“Dammit…” She entered her suit and looked at Winn. “Where’s Kara?”

“She left before you.”

Before she could say another word, she took off into the evening sky, way slower than Kara would ever be, but it didn’t matter, because she shattered the main door as she flew through, tackling Hank to the ground.

“You came!” Kara yelled, joyfully.

“Finally out of quarantine,” Ellie smirked, smashing her fist into his face, sending him flying back. “I guess you can’t ever ditch your sidekick.”

Before Kara could respond, Hank flipped her over, resulting in her smashing into the L-Corp statue in the main hallway. Ellie turned her head, registering another heat signature in her visor. It was all Hank needed to smash his fist into Ellie’s torso, breaking one of the shock absorbers and sending her skidding backwards, right next to Lena, before she dropped to one knee, sharp pain flaring up in her side.

“Lena… what the hell are you doing here?” Ellie rasped, drawing both of her katanas.

“To help.”

Hank picked up the remains of the statue, hurling it at Lena. There was a crack as Ellie spun her katanas, igniting them as she swung them at the chipped marble, splitting it in half as they landed on either side of Lena and Ellie, hissing from the contact with the burning blade.

“I’m not sure how you can help, but you need to run.” 

The cyborg sped forward, in Kara’s speed, pinning Ellie against the wall by her wrists, forcing her wrist flamethrowers and katanas useless. 

“I can’t leave you.”

“FUCKING RUN!” 

Kara stumbled to her feet, yanking Hank off of her as the NCPD officers came in, opening fire. Ellie recognized Maggie firing as Hank pinned Kara down to the ground, totally unaffected by the bullets. 

“All this time trying to save the world… who’s gonna come and save you?” Hank rasped. “No one’s coming to your rescue!”

“COWABUNGA, BITCH!” Ellie grabbed one of the burning blades, charge-tackling Hank with a burning slash to his metallic forehead and throwing him off Kara as she ignited her flamethrower and forced him back with the flames.

Then that same energy crackled through the air as a portal appeared, distracting Ellie yet again. 

_ [Caution: disruption of space time continuum.] _

“What in the ever living hell?” Ellie asked as Hank sprang through the flames, her turning back to see metal weeping and sogging under the high heat with flesh blackening and chipping away, like a shell. The blow knocked her back as her suit informed her that the flames had caused minimal damage to Hank Henshaw. At this point, Kara had gotten to her feet and tripped Henshaw.

There was a hissing sound, much like Kara’s heat vision except that it came from Henshaw’s eye, a white hot laser shooting out to hit Maggie in the shoulder.

Kara let go to check on Maggie as Ellie tackled Hank to the ground.

“Burn, Pyromaniac,” he growled as his robotic eye glowed and the hissing sound started again, forcing Ellie to roll off of him and snatch up a burning blade.

But he was gone.

She lowered the katana, disigniting it and sheathing it on her back again. Holding out a hand, the other burning blade flew right into it, disigniting on contact. She scraped the katana against the ground, creating a cement screech.

“Damn it.”

They returned to the DEO frustrated and angry. They were no closer to finding anything, and Hank was just probably there as a distraction. Maybe Lena was involved, that theory came about really fast.

Maybe Lena was involved… there was no way… but Ellie looked at Lena and saw the utter fear when she stood stock still as Ellie crumpled. That reminded her. 

_ [Doing full body physical examination. Scan show three cracked ribs in the following areas…] _

She sighed, rolling her eyes as she dismissed the diagram detailing her injuries from the front of her visor, helmet retracting so she could finally breathe fresh air. She didn’t think Lena had any part- Kara was adamantly refusing to believe that Lena was anything but good. She couldn’t quite remember the last time someone said something particularly nice about a Luthor. Even Alex and Winn hesitated a little, both having at least one good, genuine memory with Lena. 

Then, J’onn said it.

“Would you stake Mon-El’s life on that?”

“Kara…” Ellie said, masking her pain. “A-”

“If you’re here to tell me that Lena could have done it, I’m not hearing it. I’m settling this once and for all,” Kara fumed, but Ellie put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

“I was just asking if you were okay.”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” The crinkle appeared between Kara’s eyebrows everytime she was lying, but before Ellie could comment on it further, she brushed her hand off and took off.

J’onn came up to her, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “You need to stay here. You’re in pain.”

“I can handle it,” Ellie argued. “Kara needs me.”  _ And so does Lena,  _ she wanted to add, but they weren’t buying that Lena was good anymore, even if Winn and Alex were hesitant. She took off into the sky after Kara, who was… waiting for her.

“You should have rested. Are you here to stop me?” she asked bitterly.

“On the contrary, I’m here to support you. I’m your backup, remember?” Ellie leaned in closer to Kara, even though she could probably hear her. “And I know deep down Lena didn’t do anything.”

Kara smiled weakly. “Yeah?”

Ellie laughed. “Besides you, I think the only other person who has clocked in that amount of personal time with Lena Luthor is me. Now c’mon. Let’s go.”

They landed on Lena’s balcony, Ellie crumpling hard on impact as her ribs flared up in pain, dropping to one knee and clutching at her side. Kara had to support her.

“Hey, hey, take it easy. Take it easy. We’re here. I gotcha,” Kara whispered as she supported Ellie into Lena’s office.

She smiled, but her smile faded on seeing Ellie look hurt. “Here, maybe she can sit here.”

Kara deposited Ellie on the couch, her helmet retracting so that it could get rid of all the annoying warnings about her health flashing on her visor. “‘M good.”

The superhero looked at Ellie in concern, before taking a deep breath and looking at Lena. “I need your help.”

“Anything.”

“Sorry to cut in… but Lena… ‘s there a way to fix broken ribs? ‘Cause my side’s hurting and the shock absorbers I designed aren’t as effective as yours…” Ellie laughed ruefully. “I’m asking for a friend.”

“I told you to stay behind,” Kara hissed.

“‘M your backup… you coulda died earlier!” Ellie snapped back, the pain hazing through her mind. “Both of you!” 

“I don’t have anything that would help you, I’m sorry. Would painkillers help?” Lena asked, pulling out a first-aid kit from her desk.

“Nah, I got this. My suit gives an adrenaline boost if I get too hurt.” Ellie sat up, much to Kara and Lena’s horror. “‘Nyways, we came here not for me…”

“Ellie…”

“‘Was hoping you could help us find Cadmus,” Ellie drawled, seemingly forgetting that she had already asked that of Lena before. It was the pain clouding her mind.

“No…” Kara said, eyes meeting Lena’s again. “I need your help to find your mom. She’s behind Cadmus.”

A pin dropped. 

“You’re lying,” Lena said looking between both her and Ellie. Her gaze locked onto the agent. “You knew.”

“You wouldn’t have believed me, Lena,” Ellie wheezed. “C’mon. All the dots have to be clicking in place by now. The suit, the upgrades, the kidnapping, the malfunction, your gifts, the visits? She was using you to get me. It gave everybody where we worked the perfect excuse to implicate you: because you were the one to work on the suit with me.” She let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head from side to side. “Perfect victim. Perfect place. Perfect timing.”

“You can leave the same way you came in,” Lena said abruptly, turning around.

“I know what it’s like to be disillusioned by family. But Lena, you’re not them. You’re too smart and too good to be like your mother, who’s cold and dangerous. Find your own path. Be your own hero.”

With great effort, Ellie put a hand on Kara’s shoulder, using her as support to get to the balcony.

“Wait.”

They both turned around to see Lena pressing something into Ellie’s palm.

“This is an experimental drug that allows you to not feel pain for a limited amount of time as well as temporarily heal some injuries,” Lena stated, curling Ellie’s fingers around the vial, before handing Kara one too. “It’s experimental, but it has worked.”

With that, Lena Luthor turned around and walked back into the office, and Kara flew Ellie to the DEO.

There was only so much one can do with some strong pain killers before they conk out completely. There was the option of trying to set the bones back, but it was only temporary. Then there was Lena’s drug which Ellie was saving for an emergency, as well as the adrenaline.

So, maybe she had been popping pain killers like candy. She knew that was dangerous, she didn’t want to really overdo it, so when she saw Mon-El and Kara kissing it was like she had died and went to hell. Or maybe she was high? Whatever it was, this was not the high she wanted to see.

Nor was she expecting Cadmus to make a move that quickly.

_ Was that it? Did they steal from Lena or did she give the isotope to them? _

“You- stay behind,” J’onn instructed Ellie.

“Sir are you serious?” Ellie whined, a sort of slur coming over her words, a sort of garbled half asleep language that each word bled into the next.

“You’re not well. I know you’ve been stealing pain meds.”

“Sir, I can fight.”

“You will die.”

“So will you!” Ellie shouted back in frustration, tongue growing thick in her mouth.

“That’s an order,” J’onn snapped, but before anyone could say anything, Ellie had stormed into her suit.

“No, sir.’’ She defiantly shot out of the window, scanning the port for Cadmus, simply doing recon work for now. She saw J’onn and Kara shoot straight for the port, growing surprised that Ellie hadn’t beaten them there.

Ellie was more surprised at Lena.  _ Luthor, what the fuck- you idiot- what who- when- _

_ “Don’t do it, Lena!” _

_ “Why not? I’m a Luthor.” _

Ellie’s blood ran cold at that as the rocket shot into the air leaving a trail of flames, and ignoring the little voice in her mind that told her this was a bad idea, she shot down to intercept it, catching it and straining against it. Metal groaned under her palms as the pain killers worked to do their namesake.

_ You’re not Kara, you’re not as strong as her. What the hell- what the ever living hell- _

“Ellie!” Kara yelled, seizing the fins of the rocket. “I gotcha!”

“How are we gonna stop the rocket?”

But it was too late.

The rocket imploded, launching Ellie right back at the port like an asteroid, crashing in the middle of the ground, sending both copies of Hank Henshaw back upon impact.

“Pyromaniac!” Hank roared, so close to finishing his prey as Ellie pushed herself up, stumbling a little from the impact. Her head was woozy and pretty much all her shock absorbers were broken… she didn’t think she would last very long against Hank.

“Oh hey!” she swayed drunkenly, looking between the stunned J’onn and furious Hank. She giggled a little, pointing at J’onn. “I didn’t mean to knock him away. ‘M sorry.” She took a stumbling step backwards. “‘S funny. Y’all really thought you won.” Her head lolled back to look at Lena, who was staring at her with an unreadable expression. “That’s cool… but I’m not.”

Hank charged at Pyromaniac.

_ [Activating Luthor experimental drug.] _

Hank hit her like a linebacker, tackling her straight into a bunch of shipping containers as her visor flashed red upon impact. She seized his shoulders, kicking him back as she activated her taser fingers against him, delivering an electrocuting punch to his jaw.

Hooking a foot around his leg, she pinned him to the floor where he rolled them both over, smashing a fist into her helmet. She headbutted him in response, throwing him off of her and burning him at close range. 

The red particles fell.

Hank laughed cruelly as he roasted. “We won.”

There was a hiss from his eye, blasting Ellie back with his laser vision as Ellie tumbled in front of Lena, her drugs wearing off and she could really… really feel the pain.

“Why’d you do this, Lena?” Ellie asked, as Lena fumbled to get her helmet off manually. Her head lolled to the side. The adrenaline function was broken. Everything in her body screamed in pain.

Kara smashed Henshaw into the dirt. Virus falling. Lena’s mouth was opening and closing, her cold face now replaced by ones of fear as Kara looked between J’onn and Ellie, Lena reassuring her all would be okay.

She could register Kara and Lena talking, red and blue sirens, the Medusa virus fading. Everybody was alive. J’onn wasn’t dead. 

Suddenly, it clicked, her head lolling over to Lena as she tried to look up at her with half-lidded eyes.

“Ya real’z’d… tha’sh’ was lyin’ to ya all the time..” She paused for a moment as she tried to stay awake. “Ya knew when… I gots kidnap. Kidnap. Kidnap-ped. Phone call… warned ya. Usin’ ya. Smart. Good. L’k when ‘ara said all the time…” Ellie blinked, before one of her eyes slowly began to slip close. “‘Ank ya, Lena. N-no… th- ank. Th-ank ya. Thank. Thank ya. Sleep.” 

Lena later revealed that one of the side effects of the drug was actually a tendency to crash. Ellie’s injuries weren’t necessarily serious, her shock absorbers seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. She had bad cuts, bruises, maybe a few muscle aches, but nothing that bad, apart from cracked ribs, which would heal. They always do. Ellie was fighting fit in a few days, though not that ready to jump headfirst into action.

Still, it was happy news to know that aliens were alive, Lillian was now in jail thanks to Lena.

Kara and Ellie paid a visit to Lena a few days after the whole Medusa thing went down.

Ellie, with a new and improved suit that was wayyy more durable (and Kara tested), touched down on the balcony while Kara came in via the office door, surprising the Luthor tremendously.

“What are you both doing here-“ Lena was surprised when Kara pulled her in for a hug, dropping her notebook and pen to just hug Lena.

Contrary to popular belief, Kara was very picky with who she hugged and was affectionate with. This was the first time outside of Alex, Eliza and her that she saw her give that affection away to someone else (besides Mon-El… and maybe the guy whose nose she broke, but she was obligated to kiss him, apparently).

Here was a little Kryptonian culture lesson: Kryptonians were actually really adverse to physical contact, reserved for the married and the joining of houses, as well as between family members, though the latter was very rare, mostly done with babies. Kara had been really awkward with touching in the earlier stages of their friendship, but Kenny and Alex had quickly taught her that it was mostly normalized on Earth. Kara had adapted, but was still awkward with people touching her, even with friends sometimes. 

Hugs and kisses were a whole new level of adverse effects, reserved for people who knew her for a long time. (Mon-El and Lena being the anomalies.) 

At least, that’s what Kara said to her.

“Thank you,” Kara whispered, and Ellie felt like she was intruding on a private moment, opting to sneak out and speak to Jess outside a little.

“Are Miss Danvers and Miss Luthor having a moment?” Jess asked, not looking up.

“... yeah. It’s pretty weird and oddly sweet. Felt like a third wheel, honestly.”

“Miss Luthor says she has improved shock absorbers for you as well as additional upgrades.”

“Lena should stop spoiling my suit,” Ellie laughed, before the door opened and Lena herself came into the room. “Lena, stop spoiling Pyromaniac!”

“No!” she gave Ellie a shit-eating grin, before smiling at her. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Fire doesn’t burn out that easily,” Ellie laughed, giving her a small smile. “Did you and Kara share a kiss or something? That took an awfully long time.”

“Shut up,” Lena laughed, punching Ellie in the arm, looking red.

“I’m sure Kara said all the mushy stuff, but I’ll say this. Thank you for not letting my boss, Supergirl, anyone else die. Even me. Thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome.”

From this time to the Invasion and the team-up with Barry, Ellie had spent a lot of time reflecting too. Lena and Kara spent an absurd amount of time together, portals kept coming in and out of existence, kind of similar to how Kara described the portals with Barry. Eventually, it came to the point where Kara and Ellie were standing in the apartment discussing the flame suit. Kara was disagreeing with punching it while Ellie was still inside. 

“Kara… pleaaaaase?” she pouted.

“No! I could seriously hurt you!”

“But my new toys!” Ellie protested, earning her a sigh.

“Maybe we’ll find a safe situation where you can test the rest of the flame suit.”

And just her luck… Barry showed up.

God dammit.

“You’re a superhero now?” Barry asked, eyes bulging.

Ellie outright laughed. “Nah, just call me Kara’s babysitter. But we work mad well together. And I’ll be damned if something happens to Kara on my watch.”

“I remember,” Barry winced, remembering the punch Ellie gave him under mistaken circumstances that he was harming Kara. “But you’re like… buffed up now? We could really use your help too, if you can.”

“Yep,” Ellie said, waving a hand. “What did you need help with?”

“Aliens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Invasion crossover. Oliver and Ellie will get along like a house on fire.
> 
> So we have three potential contenders for Ellie: Sam, Lucy Lane and Jess. The default option is Sam but I don't know. Comment what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> I deserve to be yelled at for this. Come and yell into my tumblr, insert_pun_here_now.
> 
> This story is basically a rewrite with my OC and a fix-it of sorts.
> 
> MON-EL DESERVES BETTER THAN WHAT THE SHOW GAVE HIM OKAY. he's an ass but he's a redeemable ass.


End file.
